- country:USA
- region:North America
- style(s):Funk, Jazz
- label:K7
- type:Band, Composer/Songwriter
- gender:male
- artist posted by:BL Music
Once one of the most visible and winning jazz vibraphonists of the 1960s, then an R&B bandleader in the 1970s and '80s, Roy Ayers' reputation s now that of one of the prophets of acid jazz, a man decades ahead of his time. 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. With Ubiquity, Ayers recorded several albums for Polydor using legendary musicians such as, Sonny Fortune, Billy Cobham, Omar Hakim and Alphonze Mouzon. He also recorded and toured with Nigerian superstar, Fela Kuti in the 1970s. 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).