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Los Angeles' vibraphonist Roy Ayers (1940) emerged from the hard-bop scene
to adopt the eclectic and populist stance of his master Herbie Mann (1966-70).
He had started out in the hard-bop dialect of the early 1960s on
West Coast Vibes (july 1963), in a quintet with saxophone and piano,
and
Virgo Vibes (march 1967), featuring a stellar line-up with trumpeter Charles Tolliver, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Reggie Workman and pianist Herbie Hancock.
He switched to soul-funk-jazz fusion on the spiritual concept He's Coming (1971), featuring saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist John Williams, keyboardist Harry Whitaker and drummer Billy Cobham.
Influenced by the electric jazz-funk sound of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock,
in 1970 Ayers formed his own group, Ubiquity, that proceeded to explore that
cosmic/mystic kind of fusion on Ubiquity (1971), although
his musical vision was better represented by the haunting movie soundtrack Coffy (april 1973).
He was clearly transitioning towards slick disco and soul music, as proven by the production tour de force of Mystic Voyage (1975).
Ayers electrified the vibraphone, complemented it with electric keyboards and
employed a laid-back syncopated rhythm. Basically, Ayers predated acid-jazz by
more than a decade with pieces such as
Old One Two Move To Groove (1975),
Everybody Loves the Sunshine (1976),
Daylight (1977).
Ayers died in 2025.
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