Roy Ayers was born on September 10, 1940 in Los Angeles.
Thanks to his trombone playing father and piano teaching mother, this boy-child became immersed in music from day one. Encouraged by his mother, he took to the piano at the age of five, spinning out boogie-woogie riffs before he could spell his name. Fondly, Roy remembers, "I would write a song and play it and my Mommy would say, 'Oh! It's beautiful, baby, one day your life will be in lights.' That's what gives me my basic outlook, which is a positive one." At six, his parents took him to a Lionel Hampton show where the living legend laid a pair of his mallets on the youngster. He reached a slow-burning epiphany - Roy wouldn't pick up the vibes until he was 17 - but the die was cast. When he obtained his musician's union card in 1961, the world became his virtual oyster. The LA jazz scene at that time was quite active and he took full advantage of the situation. He gigged with such pros as Teddy Edwards, Chico Hamilton, and pianist Jack Wilson (his album, the exceedingly rare BRAZILIAN MANCINI featuring Antonio Carlos Jobim, was Ayers' first session date). In 1963, Ayers had his first date as a leader, WEST COAST VIBES (United Artists).
In 1966, bassist Reggie Workman got Roy to sit in with Herbie Mann at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. He got the gig and stayed on for four years. During this period, the vibist recorded on Mann's massive MEMPHIS UNDERGROUND LP and released three solo albums on Atlantic (DADDY BUG, VIRGO RED, STONED SOUL PICNIC, all produced by Mann).

In 1970, Roy flew the nest, settled into Manhattan and formed his own band, dubbing it Ubiquity. An ever-changing eclectic collective of musicians and vocalists, Ubiquity's music could not be pigeonholed. Funk, salsa, jazz, rock, soul, rap - all were equal parts of Ayers' vision and sound. What really tied it all together was the music's embracing of the voice as an integral instrumental component. "I realized the power of the voice - I knew jazz didn't get that much play on the radio. The giants: Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Smith, gained a lot of recognition even though their music was primarily instrumental - but it was vocal, too. People would respond to voices. I wasn't closed, I was open to it. I had people like Edwin Birdsong, who wrote "Spirit of Doo Doo" - he knew hooks. I had great singers. Dee Dee Bridgewater, Edwin, Carla Vaughan, Chicas..."
Roy Ayers and Ubiquity were signed to Polydor that year.

Thus began an astonishingly vital and prolific period that would end 12 years later and yield 20 albums. These 12 years helped crystallize Roy's vision of delivering party music with a social conscience and burned his name into the psyches of all those needing an escape from the hell of the seventies, making us sweat and smile every time his music was heard on the radio or in the clubs. Until this day, every DJ of any genre has a few - if not all - of his hits, and when "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" comes on at 3 AM, whether after a hip hop, house or techno set, everyone stays on the dance floor swaying and singing. Roy Ayers delivered us more than hits. He delivered anthems for the times.

During the eighties, Ayers formed his own label (Uno Melodic), recorded for CBS, Ichiban and London jazz club owner Ronny Scott's label. In America, Roy became a seventies footnote, but the rest of the world was hot on his case. Massive in England, Roy's live act played the world's stages in Japan, Australia and Europe to ever-increasing audiences. Thanks to the emerging worldwide acid jazz movement, sample-happy hip-hop DJs, and Guru's Jazzmatazz project of '93, Roy Ayers has regained his rightful crown and throne.

February 2002