Roy Ayers Plays C2, Brighton On Tues 18th March
Published 26th Feb 2003 by Concorde 2

Tuesday 18th March Roy Ayers. Threading the line between jazz, funk, disco & rare groove with wonderful, unforgettable classics like 'Running Away' & 'Everybody Loves the Sunshine' + DJ support from Paul Clark (Music Meltdown). 8pm. ?12.50.

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Raised by a piano teaching mother and a trombone playing father, no one was surprised when young Roy Ayers began picking out boogie woogie riffs on the house piano at the age of five.

Roy's future destiny was set when after a concert, the great Lionel Hampton presented the youngster with a pair of vibe mallets. (Years later, Ayers would meet Hampton and remind him of the event), Ayers pauses to reminisce. "At nine I was plucking on the steel guitar. From ten to seventeen I was getting myself acquainted with the vibraharp. My family always said that Lionel laid some spiritual vibes on me. Even though I never played them until I was seventeen, the vibes had always been my favorite instrument and I knew I would eventually play professionally."
With various permutations of Ayers' group Ubiquity, Roy was extraordinarily profile, recording 20 albums for Polydor in 12 years. He carved his reputation here, steadily building an audience and a sense of keen experimentation. Whether playfully tweaking the vernacular ("Spirit of Doo Doo," "Freaky Deaky"), contemplating the essence of life ("The Third Eye," "Life is Just a Moment," "We Live in Brooklyn Baby"), waxing root-ical ("Destination Motherland," "2000 Black"), lighting up the dance floor ("Get On Up, Get On Down," "Heat of the Beat") or just plain crooning ("You Send Me," "Searching"), Roy Ayers and Ubiquity clearly flowed with the currents of the Afro-beat spirit then and now.

Roy Ayers in the 1990's is enjoying a worldwide renaissance. He is the icon of the acid-jazz movement and the Smooth Jazz Movement. His music has been sampled by dozens of groups including A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, X-Clan, Big Daddy Kane, Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, The Notorious BIG, Foxy Brown and Puff Daddy. The UK based Galliano records with him, Gang Starr's recorded and toured with him on 1993's "Jazzmatazz" project, while pop diva Vanessa Williams featured him as a special guest on her 1994 "The Sweetest Days."

It was inevitable that the new generation of players and samplers would end up at vibraphone maestro Roy Ayers' corner of the rainbow. >From the time he formed his group Ubiquity in 1970 to today, Roy Ayers has developed a style known as Smooth Jazz and pacified millions of music lovers. His signature blend of Smooth vibes, musical concept, mother wit lyrics, classic bottom leavened with dashes and splotches of saxophones, keyboards and worldly percussion is a reflection of his eclectic instincts.

Notable songs include:
2,000 Blacks Got to Be Free
Evolution
Running Away
Get on up, Get on Down
We Live in Brooklyn, Baby
Everybody Loves the Sunshine
Searchin'
You Send Me
Mystic Voyage
Don't Stop the Feeling

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