Roy Ayers

One of the most visible and winning post-bop vibraphonists, Roy Ayers was a major prophet of jazz-funk, acid jazz, and neo-soul, a man ahead of his time who erased boundaries between genres of Black music in America. Crisp, lyrical, and rhythmically resilient, his playing signature throughout six decades was rooted in hard bop, dating back to his early-'60s work as a sideman. Though he issued fine records later that decade for Atlantic, his '70s Polydor recordings as leader of Roy Ayers Ubiquity brought forth a groundbreaking evolution of jazz styles while appealing to quiet s...