As is often the case, musicians I would discover much later in my jazz journey played on prominent albums from much earlier in my journey - I just never knew who they were back then. Roy Ayers is just such a musician.
I discovered and became a big fan of his one Saturday morning in the late 1990s, when I walked into the Jazz Record Mart in Chicago and heard the song He’s a Superstar, from his 1972 album He’s Coming. That song made me take notice. Over the years, as I revisited important, earlier albums in my collection, I discovered Roy Ayers was there.
For example, I only bought Jack Wilson’s Something Personal from Logos Books and Records because I noticed Ray Brown played cello on it - I was a big fan of Oscar Pettiford’s cello. It was also an original Blue Note release, so it must be good.
That was a serendipitous occasion, Something Personal, in fact, became something personal in my jazz journey.
Another example is Herbie Mann’s Concerto Grosso in D Blues, recorded on the Atlantic label in November 1968.
This is actually one of the first jazz albums I picked out of the “Ground Zero” stacks in 1981. You can read about “Ground Zero” here:
I pulled this album out because I recognized Herbie Mann, and I liked the blues.
It would be many years later that I discovered the vibes player on Wilson’s Something Personal and Mann’s Concerto Grosso in D Blues was the same man - Roy Ayers.
By the early 1960s, Ayers, a native Californian, was playing regularly with a number of local performers, including such fixtures on the Los Angeles jazz scene as Teddy Edwards, Chico Hamilton, and Jack Wilson. He made his recording debut as a sideman for West Coast albums like Curtis Amy’s Way Down, recorded for Pacific Jazz in 1962:
From that album, here is the title track:
The following year, in 1963, Ayers recorded West Coast Vibes on the Atlantic label, his first album as a leader:
This is a pretty straight ahead affair with Jack Wilson on piano, Curtis Amy on tenor, and Victor Gaskin on bass, who would go on to perform in John Mayall’s jazz/blues fusion band in the early 1970s..
In 1966, Ayers joined Jack Wilson for the seminal Something Personal album. You can read more about Jack Wilson here:
The following year, in 1967, Ayers recorded Virgo Vibes, his second as a leader. He is joined on the album by Harold Land, with whom he would enjoy a long association, and some top flight musicians: Joe Henderson on tenor; Charles Tolliver on trumpet; Herbie Hancock and Jack Wilson on piano; Buster Williams and Reggie Workman on bass; and Donald Bailey on drums.
The 1968 Atlantic release Stoned Soul Picnic marked the beginning of a jazz inflection point for Ayers. From then on he drifted away from jazz into more R&B, soul, and funk grooves. Here is Ayer’s instrumental version of Laura Nyro’s Stoned Soul Picnic:
Again, Ayers is joined on this album by a heavy group of sidemen with Herbie Hancock on organ, Gary Bartz on alto sax, Charles Tolliver on trumpet, Hubert Laws on flute, and the great Ron Carter on bass. This album was produced by Herbie Mann, and, if you missed it the last time I posted it, please take a few more minutes and read about his journey here:
Also in 1968, Ayers recorded the aforementioned Concerto Grosso in D Blues with Mann’s group at the Teldec Studios in West Berlin.
When I first played it, I was totally unprepared for what I heard - the overall effect was amazement. It is a fusion of classical and jazz and blues. Side one is the 28 minute long title track, co-written by Mann and William S. Fisher, an interesting cat who deserves wider recognition. Concerto Grosso in D Blues starts out rather classical, but at the 11:30 minute mark, right after Mann’s flute solo, it gets pretty free and very interesting. But for me the real gem of this album is the final track on side two, My Little Ones:
I spent many nights in “Ground Zero” doing my homework listening to this album with headphones (highly recommended). Mann’s band was again loaded with big-time young players with Roy Ayers on vibes, the iconic Sonny Sharrock on guitar, and, of course, Ron Cater on bass. When I first heard this album, I had no idea who Ayers and Sharrock were.
In 1969, Herbie Mann tapped Ayers for Stone Flute, recorded on Mann’s Embryo label:
I find this an incredibly underrated album and perhaps one of Mann’s best. From this album, here is the wonderful Don’t You Know The Way (How I Feel About You):
Lord have mercy - just play this on repeat for a while. The organ and piano on this album are manned by none other than Herbie Hancock, who was not credited for contractual reasons - and once again, Sonny Sharrock is in there too….
Here’s one more for the road. With a career spanning nearly 60 years, Roy Ayers inspired a multitude of artists with his jazz-oriented R&B. In the second half of the 1970s, the birth of disco brought Ayers and Ubiquity into the limelight. The hit song Everybody Loves the Sunshine, from Ayers 1976 album of the same title, was never released as a single, yet is probably the song he is most known for:
In an interview, Ayers explained: “The song changed everything for me. It’s still the last song of my show. People always join in and it’s been sampled over 100 times, by everyone from Dr. Dre to Pharrell Williams,”
Even 46 years later, I think this is still a great song for the dog days of summer.
Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles into the waters of guitarist Sonny Sharrock.
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Until then, keep on walking….