Roy Ayers

Los Angeles native Roy Ayers grew up in a musical household in the South Park neighborhood, now known as South Central, which was the hub of Southern California Black Music back in the 1950s and ‘60s. Jazz legend Lionel Hampton gave Ayers his first vibraphone mallets when the latter was just a kid.

During the early part of his career, most of Ayers’ music was of the jazz-funk variety and was characterized by albums like Daddy Bug & Friends, Stoned Soul Picnic, and Ubiquity. Ayers also scored the 1973 Blaxploitation film Coffy. As Ayers matured, he moved increasingly to an R&B sound, and when the 1980s rolled around, he performed a solo on the Whitney Houston single “Love Will Save the Day.”

Ayers continues to evolve as an artist. In the early 2000s he dabbled in house music with artists like Kerri Chandler and Masters at Work. Countless hip-hop artists have sampled Roy Ayers’ music and have been influenced by his ingenuity. Ayers also hosted a fictitious radio station called Fusion FM on the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

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