{"id":12479,"date":"2017-03-24T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T09:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12479"},"modified":"2017-03-22T09:36:17","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T13:36:17","slug":"roy-ayers-positive-vibrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/24\/roy-ayers-positive-vibrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Roy Ayers’ Positive Vibrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Few popular musicians have been successful at making a switch from one genre to another while holding on to a substantial fan base. Singer and vibraphonst Roy Ayers<\/strong> has done it, and more than once. Famously gifted a set of vibes mallets by bandleader Lionel Hampton<\/strong>, Ayers earned one of his first professional breaks as a member of Gerald Wilson<\/strong>‘s big band in the early 1960s. He went on to play with genre-hopping flautist Herbie Mann<\/strong>, most notably on the classic 1968 LP Memphis Underground.<\/i> \u201cHerbie worked very hard,\u201d recalls Ayers. \u201cHe consistently made good, great albums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Memphis Underground<\/i> was among the best. On that album, Mann bridged jazz, rock and soul, and Ayers sparred musically with hotshot guitarists Larry Coryell<\/strong> and Sonny Sharrock<\/strong>; many decades later, Sharrock would lend his gonzo guitar work to the Space Ghost Coast to Coast<\/i> theme song. \u201cThose years we shared together were great,\u201d says Ayers. \u201cSonny was fantastic; Larry’s a cooker!\u201d<\/p>\n

But not long after, Mann decided to head in a different, less musically challenging direction. \u201cHe wanted to go into a much mellower groove,\u201d Ayers recalls. \u201cAnd he did very well with that.\u201d Ayers took the opportunity to start a band of his own, Ubiquity<\/strong>. At its best, the group rivaled other top bands working in the new jazz-rock fusion idiom. But looking back, Ayers is characteristically modest about those recordings. \u201cI was just playing music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Ayers does admit to having been single-minded in his musical pursuits. \u201cI did a lot of recording; more than the average guy,\u201d he says. He once kept a session going for 27 hours straight. \u201cI used to wear engineers out,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI didn’t try to do that; it just happened that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the mid 1970s Ayers had shifted styles again, making smooth r&b. His 1979 track \u201cDon’t Stop the Feeling\u201d was a Top 10 single on Billboard<\/i>‘s Hot Disco\/Dance chart. And he’s remained very active; Ayers has released nearly 60 albums, and lent his talents as a sideman to countless others. He’s worked on projects from Afrobeat\/world to hip-hop, jazz, soul and pop.<\/p>\n

In the hip-hop era, many of Ayers’ funky tracks were sampled. Bits of his music have found new life \u2013 and listeners \u2013 in tracks by N.W.A.<\/strong>, Common<\/strong>, Dr. Dre<\/strong> and literally dozens of others. Asked if he gets the proper royalties for those samples, he laughs. \u201cI have lawyers for that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Along with Stevie Wonder<\/strong> and other prominent Americans, Ayers was a key activist lobbying in favor of the Martin Luther King Jr.<\/strong> Day national holiday. His relationship to Atlanta music goes back many years; Ayers has appeared at past National Black Arts Festivals and Atlanta Jazz Festivals. For his two-night run at City Winery Atlanta in January, he was joined by a cast of Atlanta musicians. Ayers has enjoyed previous City Winery shows, like a recent sold-out set in Chicago. \u201cThese people \u2026 they love wine, and they love my music,\u201d he says. \u201cI enjoy it too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few popular musicians have been successful at making a switch from one genre to another while holding on to a substantial fan base. Singer and vibraphonst Roy Ayers has done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,41,42,69],"tags":[3012],"class_list":["post-12479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-funk","category-interview","category-jazz","category-soul","tag-roy-ayers","cat-31-id","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12481,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12479\/revisions\/12481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}