NEW YORK (AP) — Roy Ayers, a legendary jazz vibraphonist, keyboardist, composer and vocalist recognized for his spacy, funky 1976 hit “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” that has been sampled by such R&B and rap heavyweights as Mary J. Blige, N.W.A., Dr. Dre, 2Pac, Mos Def and Ice Dice, has died. He was 84.
The Ayers household stated in a Fb submit that he died Tuesday in New York Metropolis after affected by an extended sickness. “He lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed,” it stated.
Ayers had 12 albums land within the Billboard 200 album charts, the best being “You Send Me” in 1978 at No. 48. His “The Best of Roy Ayers” spend 50 weeks on the Modern Jazz Album chart.
His music by no means went out of favor, showing within the 2019 “Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack.” His tune “Running Away” propelled A Tribe Referred to as Quest’s 1989 opus “Description of a Fool,” and the tune was sampled by Huge Daddy Kane and Widespread. Ayers was heard on Tyler, the Creator’s album “Cherry Bomb” and Erykah Badu’s “Mama’s Gun.”
“Well, I have more sampled hits than anybody,” he said in a 2004 interview with Wax Poetics magazine. “I might not have more samples than James Brown, but I’ve had more sampled hits. Oh, man, and there’s a few I don’t know about.”
Considered one of Ayers’ hottest albums was “Lifeline,” which peaked at No. 9 on what has grow to be the High R&B/Hip-hop chart in 1977 and contained the hit “Running Away,” which peaked at No. 19 on the R&B chart and have become an enormous membership hit.
Throughout a go to to Johannesburg in 2017, Ayers provided some rhythmic recommendation for youth within the metropolis’s Soweto space: Get critical, be impressed, rap on, carry on and “eventually you’ll get it.”
“You guys, you have to pick your plateau. Get serious about everything,” stated Ayers. He additionally named just a few musicians who’ve impressed him: Nigerian Fela Kuti (“he was really like a genius”), Herbie Mann (“he taught me the business”) and Miles Davis (“He was the coolest. He was the grandmaster. He was out of sight”).
After debuting on file with exhausting bop tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy’s group in 1962, he teamed with jazz flutist Mann to file three albums for Atlantic Data — “Virgo Vibes,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Daddy Bug” — and wrote and produced the soundtrack for the blaxploitation movie “Coffy” starring Pam Grier. He additionally moved on to work with David “Fathead” Newman, the tenor mainstay of Ray Charles’ nice ’60s orchestra.
In 2017, he appeared alongside such acts as Tom Petty, the Shins, Alabama Shakes, Charles Bradley and William Bell on the eclectic Arroyo Seco Pageant in Los Angeles.
Ayers is survived by his spouse Argerie, and their kids Mtume and Ayana Ayers.
