Roy Ayers Dead: 'Everybod...ian Was 84

just last Sunday night,I was listening to the 2-CD 'Evolution: The Polydor Anthology' set which is an amazing overview of his career.I listent to his music all the time....those jazzy,melodic,intoxicating grooves are mindblowing! my life,my life,my life,my life...in the sunshine.... I feel truly blessed to have grown up in the 70s,surrounded by so much incredible music.Thank you,Roy!!

Roy's music was absolutely sublime. It still sounds exciting and fresh. He will truly be missed. RIP Roy.

A complete and utter original that we'll never see the likes of again. Not in this or any future lifetimes. How many musicians have such a unique style of playing and producing that they might as well be their own genre of music? Very, VERY few.

Roy was one.

So him twice live.

A jazz cat who could hold his own in the 60s, a grandmaster genius jazz-funk creator/pioneer in the 70s, a visionary businessman with his own label in the 80s. Perhaps 2nd only to James as one of THE FEW true foundation stones of hip-hop.

No post about Roy Ayers could be complete without mention of the group RAMP (stands for a Roy Ayers Musical Production) a jazz/funk group Roy produced (and put together himself, I think not sure) that recorded the monster LP "Come Into Knowledge" I believe in 1977, containing the ultra-monster cut "Daylight." They were from Cincinnati right down the road from GROUND ZERO of 1970s funk, Dayton, Ohio.

In my opinion, Roy's VERY best stuff was his early 80s output on his own imprint Uno Melodic (and also Gold Mink,) including Sylvia Striplin, 80s Ladies, Jaymz Bedford and Ethel Beatty. Not well known to the public at least in America but this part of Roy's output is all over 90s hip-hop that is VERY well-known. If Roy owned the publishing to this stuff, he must have made a lot of money in the 90s.

Roy lived a great long life and played music from day one until the end bringing countless millions across the globe extreme joy.

We should all aspire to achieve such impactful living.

Just one more thing - my Dad and I used to have debates about vibes players. I swore Roy was the best there'd ever been and my Dad said would say, no, Roy was #2, and that while Roy had made much better records, Vince Montana was, overall, a better player. I still say Roy is #1!

[Edited 3/6/25 16:15pm]

[Edited 3/6/25 16:20pm]

https://youtu.be/iFVE3_N0...MZbmyTajP1

https://youtu.be/LvahMZLY...ibLxAh9bN6

https://youtu.be/4wtVKkqY...7fze6d0cj9

https://youtu.be/YuYkTkZj...yzGVmgR5yv

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOH3LxO-1fs

Have this one on vinyl "Dangerous Vibes" Spen & Karizma Deepah Dub very fonky

Thanks for the wonderful music...

https://youtu.be/VSg2nZgJ...NfXaaE6XxQ

Someone's gonna read this who doesn't know this track.