Roy Ayers, a tremoloist who helped pioneer a new, more stylish jazz in the 1970s, became one of many artists following hip-hop artists, a touchstone for many, who died Tuesday in Manhattan. He is 84 years old.
His son Mtume announced his death, and his son Mtume declared him dead due to a prolonged illness.
Apart from being one of the recognized masters of jazz tremolo, Mr. Ayers is also a leader in the movement, which adds electrical instruments, rock and R&B rhythms, and a deeper feel for jazz. He is also one of the most successful jazz musicians of his generation.
He has released nearly four dozen albums, most notably 22 in 12 years at Polydor Records. Twelve of his Polydor albums have spent 149 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 rankings. His work “Everyone Loves Sunshine” on the 1976 album of the same name has been sampled nearly 200 times by artists including Tupac Shakur, Dre, Dr. Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg. Electric Piano Hook from “Love” was used on his first Polydor album “Ubiquity” (introducing his group of namesake) in Deee-Lite's 1990 dance hit “Groove Is Heart In the Heart.”
Producer Adrian Younge collaborated with Mr. Ayers and Ali Shaheed Shaheed Muhammad of the Hip-Hop Group A Tribe: “Roy Ayers has a lot of responsibility for what we think is 'Neo-soul'.” “His voice mixed with the soul jazz of the universe and really created artists like Erykah Badu and Jill Scott. Just that groove.
He added: “It's not that people at that time didn't make music with grooves, but he was definitely a pioneer.”
Roy Edward Ayers Jr. His father was a nonsense dealer and amateur trombone. His mother was a school teacher and piano teacher who gave Roy lessons since childhood.
Speaking in the British newspaper Nottingham Post in 2013, Ayers recalled that his first contact with tremolo came through the instrumental giant, when his parents took his young Roy to watch him:
“I got my first set of tremol hammers from Lionel Hampton when I was 5, so I always imagined Lionel Hampton. Once, when I was very young, I thought I was going to be Lionel Hampton. My mother and father were playing his music all the time, so I raised it on Lionel Hampton.”
Mr. Ayers studied music and music history with famous coach Samuel R. Browne, whose other students include Dexter Gordon and Charles Mingus, while attending Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles.
Under the leadership of saxophone players Curtis Amy and Vi Redd, he created his first record in the months after his 21st birthday. He made his debut as the Leader before he was 23 years old, titled “West Coast Vibes,” the album “West Coast Vibes.”
Mr. Ayers received his first national exposure in 1966 when he joined the band of Fatty Herbie Mann, one of the most successful jazz musicians of the time. As Mr. Mann’s Atlantic Records Group and Mr. Mann’s own record company Embryo, he will continue to produce 11 albums. Mr. Mann helped him sign a contract with the Atlantic and produced four of his albums for the record company and Colombia Japan between 1967 and 1969.
These albums are very much in line with the post-Bob style of the era, but the title track written by Laura Nyro of his 1968 album “Stoned Soul Picnic” which uses electric bass and trumpet sounds to mimic the sound of the church choir and electric bass, heralding the next period for Mr. Ayers.
In 1970, he formed Roy Ayers everywhere, and he would be his band to become the soul jazz star. The name was proposed by his manager Myrna Williams – who explained the choice of “History Maker” in a 2016 website verbal interview, “It’s great because I can tell everyone that I can be anywhere at the same time.”
After the contract with the Atlantic Ocean ended, Mr. Ayers established a long and fruitful partnership with Polydor. He and his band released 11 albums from 1970 to 1977, with evocative champions like “Change Up the Groove” and “Vibration.” In addition to using electric instruments and producing grooves that fit the dance floor better than the jazz club, Roy Ayers Ubiquity also includes Mr. Ayers' vocals. Some members of the group appeared in the soundtrack of Mr Ayers' 1973 Blaxploitation film “Coffy”, starring Pam Grier.
Although the group is popular and will eventually prove to be highly influential, it has received reactions from critics. John S. Wilson of The New York Times performed at the New York Village show at the New York Village by The Country Pioneer, writing: “Even if Mr. Ayers gained a tough and heavy tone from the tremolo, his performance is often buried under the explosive power of the accompaniment, or absorbed by the very similar sound of the electric piano.”
Mr Wilson went on to say that Mr Ayers' Fuzztone attachment added his atmosphere “created a harsh noise that, in amplified state, makes it a too vivid idea to feel locked in a closet.”
A concert review in 1995 in the exclusive magazine Black Radio was very good, he called him a “permanent (and underrated) fixture in dance music” and noted his influence on “their acid jazz heads, their acid jazz heads are his style, hip hop heads, hip hop masters, their tracks sampled his tracks and the dancers will always grove in the record.”
Mr. Mann trained Mr. Ayers' career and he will train his young accusations. In 1978, he also produced an album by a band without him.
Keyboardist Philip Woo was part of the band's late stages and continued to work with Mr. Ayers after the general disbandment in the early 1980s, who wrote in an email: “Roy Ayers discovered in Seattle in 1976 at 1976. I was in Seattle when I was 19. Until then, I was in the local band. I think he started my career.”
Three of Mr. Ayers' most important albums are collaborations: Wayne Henderson, the founder of the Jazz Crusader, in 1978 and 1980, and Afrobeat Trailblazer Fela Kuti.
Mr. Ayers is the source of inspiration for his 2022 memoir, “My Life in the Sun: Finding My Father and Discovering My Family.”
In addition to his sons Mtume and Nabil, Mr. Ayers survived by his wife Argerie. daughter, Ayana Ayers; and a granddaughter.
During the final decades of his career, Mr. Ayers recorded several different tags while staying true to the genres he helped create. He also appeared on albums such as Rick James, Whitney Houston, George Benson, the rapper master.
Mr Ayers said in a discussion with historic people about his legacy as an artist and artist: “There is an old saying that when you do your own thing, you do it to others too. My legacy is that I can make everyone happy. Everyone, even negative.”
Ash Wu Contribution report. Sheelagh McNeill Contributed to the research.
