Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
Hyde Park Jazz Fest on Chicago’s South Side to Present 20th Edition
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
Ayers began to play the vibraphone at age 5 after seeing a performance by Lionel Hampton, who gave him a pair of vibraphone mallets.
(Photo: Mark Sheldon)Vibraphonist and composer Roy Ayers, whose soul-driven, electrified approach influenced generations of R&B-adjacent musicians, died March 4 at his home in Manhattan after a long illness. He was 84.
His commercially successful career saw the release of more than 40 albums, and he collaborated with globally celebrated artists such as Wayne Henderson, Rick James, the Roots, George Benson and Fela Kuti, as well as the “neo-soul”-influenced producer Adrien Younge.
Roy Edward Ayers Jr. was born on Sept. 10, 1940, in Los Angeles to a musical family. He began to play the vibraphone at age 5 after seeing a live performance by Lionel Hampton, who bestowed a pair of vibraphone mallets upon the youngster. While in his early 20s, he began playing and recording with L.A.-based saxophonists Curtis Amy and Vi Redd. Ayers’ debut album, West Coast Vibes (United Artists), was released in 1963. He went on to gain national exposure starting in 1966, when he joined flutist Herbie Mann’s band. Mann, famous for the strong groove element inherent in his music, helped the young vibraphonist land recording contracts and served as a producer on albums released under his own name in the late 1960s.
The band Roy Ayers Ubiquity, which brought him to the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, was considered highly influential in the then-burgeoning jazz-funk realm. Ayers’ 1976 hit “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” is the most recognized title in his acclaimed oeuvre of original songs, which have been sampled hundreds of times by hip-hop and R&B musicians. Other memorable tunes by Ayers include “Coffey Is The Color” (from the 1973 Pam Grier film Coffey), “Love,” “Running Away,” “Love Will Bring Us Back Together” and “We Live In Brooklyn, Baby.”
He is survived by his wife, Argerie, and their children, Mtume and Ayana Ayers. DB
A solo concert by saxophonist Joshua Redman will close the first night of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival on Sept. 26.
Sep 22, 2026 12:26 PM
The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will take place for the 20th time on the final weekend of September 2026. Beginning half…
“It was just that suddenly … I could hear it,” Ravi Coltrane said of an epiphany he experienced during his late teens regarding his father’s music. “And it was almost like a calling, like something saying, ‘Hey, man, come on. It’s time to get serious.’ And the first time you really tune in and dial in and focus like that, it can be very life-changing.”
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Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Sept. 23, is the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth. In honor of the tenor and…
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As emcee Mark Ruffin noted at the commencement of an epic tribute to saxophonist Sonny Rollins at the Cathedral of Saint…
Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.
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It began in 2001. A travel agent named Anita E. Berry had been booking clients on “partial” jazz cruises that took…
Sep 17, 2026 11:00 AM
The 2027 DownBeat College Guide is an invaluable resource for music students, especially jazz students, to find a school…
