Roy Ayers Ubiquity

When Roy Ayers was five years old, Lionel Hampton gave him a couple of vibraphone mallets, and since then the history of the instrument has changed in his hands. The West Coast sound, bebop, soul, funk and hip hop are the stylistic credentials that have marked the career of this great figure in popular music of our time. A true legend who, at 75 years of age, still has his groove on and continues exploring beats and rhythms. He came up along with the likes of Teddy Edwards, Hampton Hawes and Herbie Mann, and he got his band Ubiquity going with musicians like Sonny Fortune, Billy Cobham, Omar Hakim and Alphonse Mouzon. He was also initially influenced by Miles Davis's electric sound and by Herbie Hancock's sextet, and he collaborated a bit later with Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Gurú also put him on the payroll for Jazzmatazz, which led him to work with Donald Byrd.