NEW YORK — Roy Ayers, a legendary jazz vibraphonist, keyboardist, composer and vocalist known 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 Cube, has died. He was 84.
The Ayers family said in a Facebook post that he died Tuesday in New York City after suffering from a long illness. “He lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed,” it said.
Ayers had 12 albums land in the Billboard 200 album charts, the highest being “You Send Me” in 1978 at No. 48. His “The Best of Roy Ayers” spend 50 weeks on the Contemporary Jazz Album chart.
His music never went out of style, appearing in the 2019 “Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack.” His song “Running Away” propelled A Tribe Called Quest’s 1989 opus “Description of a Fool,” and the song was sampled by Big Daddy Kane and Common. 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.”
One of Ayers’ most popular albums was “Lifeline,” which peaked at No. 9 on what has become the Top R&B/Hip-hop chart in 1977 and contained the hit “Running Away,” which peaked at No. 19 on the R&B chart and became a massive club hit.
During a visit to Johannesburg in 2017, Ayers offered some rhythmic advice for youth in the city’s Soweto area: Get serious, be inspired, rap on, keep on and “eventually you’ll get it.”
“You guys, you have to pick your plateau. Get serious about everything,” said Ayers. He also named a few musicians who have inspired 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 record with hard bop tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy’s group in 1962, he teamed with jazz flutist Mann to record three albums for Atlantic Records — “Virgo Vibes,” “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Daddy Bug” — and wrote and produced the soundtrack for the blaxploitation film “Coffy” starring Pam Grier. He also moved on to work with David “Fathead” Newman, the tenor mainstay of Ray Charles’ great ’60s orchestra.
In 2017, he appeared alongside such acts as Tom Petty, the Shins, Alabama Shakes, Charles Bradley and William Bell at the eclectic Arroyo Seco Festival in Los Angeles.
Ayers is survived by his wife Argerie, and their children Mtume and Ayana Ayers.
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