When Roy Ayers, one of the greatest vibraphonists in modern music passed away early in March of 2025, many younger listeners started becoming aware of how many times they have heard at least snippets of his music without realizing it.
His most famous song, “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” (1976) has been sampled by a slew of modern artists over 100 times, and his other works at least 100 more.
Yet, that is only a tip of the iceberg when you consider the influence Ayers had on more than one modern musical genre – starting out within the realm of jazz, Ayers moved to combining his jazz roots with funk, soul and even rock music, so that at one point his practically seamless musical combinations had such an influence that he was named the godfather of neo-soul and true creator of acid jazz and had an immense influence on hip-hop.
It All Started with Lionel Hampton’s Mallets
Ayers, who was born in Los Angeles (1940), is one of those artists who truly made an early connection with music – his father played trombone as an amateur, and his mother, who was a schoolteacher and piano tutor gave him music lessons early in life.
But it was his attendance at a concert by legendary vibraphonist Lionel Hampton when he was only 5 years old that was the true starting point – as he explained in an interview to an English newspaper back in 2013, he was grooving so hard at the concert, that Hampton gifted him with a set of his mallets!
From there on it was all the way forward with music, making his first recordings at the age of 21, with the first album under his name, West Coast Vibes (1963) at the age of 23.
From Hard Bop and Jazz to Funk and Elsewhere
Moving from post-bop and the L.A. jazz scene, Ayers gained more exposure when he joined flautist Herbie Mann, another jazz musician stretching the boundaries of jazz and his band in 1966. That brought him a contract with Atlantic Records, for which he recorded 11 albums.
As the new decade came in, Roy Ayers moved to Polydor Records and formed Ubiquity (yes, that is where the modern soul jazz label picked up its name) a band which he led and with which he recorded 11 albums (from 1970 to 1977) that many consider the highlight of his career.
That is when Ayers started introducing elements of other musical genres from soul and funk to rock. Akin to Miles Davis, he introduced electrical instruments to the band, his music often finding its way to dance floors, with quite a number of jazz critics not being to enamored with Ayers’ innovations.
“Everybody Loves The Sunshine” – to This Day
From that key period in Ayers’s musical career, one song left the most impact to this day – it was “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” from the album of the same name (1976).
Talking about the song, Ayers told the British daily Guardian in 2017: “It was so spontaneous. It felt wonderful. And I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound: a mix of vibraphone, piano and a synthesizer.” And that is where all the samplers and crate diggers would look for their inspiration – from Dr. Dre (“My Life”) to Mary J. Blige (“My Life”) and countless others – more than 100 of them.
As was the case with his tendency for collaborations in the ’60s, Ayers continued that trend even late into his career – from trombonist Wayne Henderson and Afrobeat master Fela Kuti to appearing on albums by Rick James, Whitney Houston, George Benson, Guru and others.
Roy Ayers’ multi-genre music, being responsible for some influential sub- genres like neo-soul and acid jazz and his serious influence on sampling and hip-hop make him one of the most influential artists in modern music where his legacy will keep on influencing other artists further on.
