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Roy Ayers Connection

@royayersconnection

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A multimedia project highlighting the life and legacy of jazz legend Roy Ayers and all that is connected to him (aka the @royayersproject, est 2010).

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Happy heavenly birthday Roy Ayers🎉

Before Roy Ayers became the master of the groove, there was a young kid in Los Angeles who was fascinated by the vibes.

The story goes that when Ayers was about five, his parents took him to see Lionel Hampton perform. Hampton gave him a pair of vibraphone mallets, and that was pretty much it — Ayers was hooked. He started studying piano, then turned his attention to the vibes and eventually became one of the instrument’s great voices.

He came up playing jazz, working with Herbie Mann and recording straight-ahead music before moving into the sound that became his own: jazz mixed with funk, soul and R&B. With Roy Ayers Ubiquity, records like Mystic Voyage, Running Away and We Live in Brooklyn Baby gave the vibes a whole different kind of life.

And then there was Everybody Loves the Sunshine. Hip-hop heard it, sampled it and introduced Roy to another generation. But we go back to 1967 at the Newport Jazz Festival for a taste of the good vibes of Roy with Herbie Mann.

Roy died in 2025 at 84, but that warm, unmistakable sound is still everywhere.

#royayers #vibes #jazzcorner

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Oggi sarebbe stato l'ottantaseisimo compleanno di Roy Ayers, una vera leggenda
Un artista che ha prodotto dischi seminali negli anni ’70, che è resistito con dignità ai tanto pop ’80 e che dai ‘90 ad oggi è stato "saccheggiato" dai produttori che contano , soprattutto di matrice rap e hip-hop e disco ,tra citazioni e autentici tributi
Alzate il volume

#royayers #disco #funky #Bologna

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If you don’t dance at parties, GO HOME.

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A couple bullet points:

- The Roy Ayers Project short film is available to view in my bio and at royayersproject.com. Please check it out!

- You can watch the stream of the Roy Ayers Tribute at Grand Performances in the bio link.

- Thanks again to all who have supported me this far, who made this film possible, who came out to support, and special thanks to Michael and Juan who came down from the Bay to be at GP.

- I didn’t get a chance to say my prepared speech at before the film played at Grand Performances, so I copied and pasted it in the comments below

- Shout out to @way2majorarchive for the photo. Excellent work as always.

- Check the second slide for my words on stage. (That was tough, lol)

- Big shout out to @ecoleye, @pabloaguilarstudio, @mochilla and the @grandperfs staff and crew, as @sly5thave and all the stage performers, and @thefrancescaharding for the lovely introduction.

- I look forward to building on this project in the future.

Thanks, yall. ✌🏽

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The Roy Ayers Project short film is linked in the bio! It took 15 years to get here but here we are.

Thank you all who made this night and project possible at Grand Performances (@grandperfs), especially @mikeflossin and @wonwayposibul who came from the bay to be in attendance. I wouldn’t be standing here without the people who invested in me. I’m grateful.

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D E L A S O U L • R O Y • A Y E R S

🥁Prepping for something COOL today in LA!
If you know, You know. 😉

🫡 @wearedelasoul @royayerssunshine

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This day is 15+ years in the making. I’ll be showing the Roy Ayers Project documentary short film at Grand Performances (@grandperfs), Los Angeles, August 1st, 6pm - 10pm PST (screening will be 7:30ish).

If you are unable to attend, the entire show will be live streamed and archived on Grand Performances’ YouTube page.

Thank you to all the folks who have made this event and documentary possible (I don’t want to mention names because I don’t want to forget anyone, but you know who y’all are!)

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#jazzfunk - Roy Ayers Ubiquity . The Black Five💥❤️❤️❤️💥#1975 #vinyloftheday #nowspinning #royayersubiquity

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EVERYBODY LOVES THE SUNSHINE ☀️ #royayers #everyonelovesthesunshine #summersongs #acalective #choir

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BEES & THINGS & FLOWERS
A tribute to Roy Ayers

Join us on Saturday, August 1 @grandperfs to celebrate the life, music, and genius of Los Angeles’s own Roy Ayers.

Experience his timeless catalog reimagined by @sly5thave , featuring @kassaoverall , @jimettarose , @sashaberliner along with an incredible lineup of musicians and special guests honoring one of the most influential artists of our time.

Opening sets by @linafornia and @illijahbeats

Premiere Film screening by @royayersconnection

Live screen printing by @hnrcrew

Bring your family, bring your friends, and join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating the spirit, legacy, and enduring impact of a true Los Angeles icon.

Grand Performances 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM Free • All Ages

Please RSVP at GrandPerformances.org. Your RSVP helps support free community programming like this and lets Grand Performances know you’d like to see more events of this kind.

Featured Artists:
Arranger/composer - Sly5thAve
Drums/vox - Kassa Overall
Bass - Cooper Appelt
Guitar - Peter Knudsen
Keys - Sam Barsh
Percussion - Bendji Allonce
Vibraphone - Sasha Berliner
Violin I - Tylana Renga
Trumpet - Todd Simon
Trombone - Chris Johnson
Sax/Flute - Sylvester Onyejiaka
Voice (lead) - Jimetta Rose
Bgv 1 - Aankha Neal
Bgv 2 - Steven Kellye
Bgv 3 - Gabby Hernandez
Special Guest 1 - ??
Special Guest 2 - ??

This event is produced by:
@ecoleye @pabloaguilarstudio @mochilla & @grandperfs

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I wanted to take some time to acknowledge some of the folks leading up to the Roy Ayers Tribute event at Grand Performances on August 1st.

Something that I’ve spoken about during my time working on the Roy Ayers documentary is the relationships that I developed along the way. In between filming for the documentary, I built and managed a blog at royayersproject.com, where I wrote articles and shared music, photos, and videos about Roy Ayers and the people surrounding his world, illustrating Roy’s influence through six degrees of separation.

This photo is a screen grab of our old website, royayersproject.com.

One of the things I’m most proud of creating through the website was the Roy Ayers Beat Submission initiative, where I invited producers to submit beats that sampled Roy Ayers. The response became much bigger than I could have imagined. I received submissions from cities I’d never heard of and countries I had only seen in photos. The purpose was to show just how far and wide Roy Ayers’ influence reached, and the impact was, and still is, global. In addition to posting individual beat submissions on the website, I released them as compilations, which received tens of thousands of downloads. Big shout out to @dart_adams, who consistently promoted the compilations on producersiknow.com. Through these compilations, we featured producers such as @knxwledge, @tallblackguyproductions, @sevseveer, @itsmeneedle, @abjonian, @ojedot, and many others.

In addition to the beat submissions, I also put out a call for writers to help populate the blog. This is where I was fortunate enough to meet @paulclabourne and @hayling, who contributed pieces that I still think about today. Sev Seveer also contributed a couple of writings as well. What started as a call for blog contributors turned into in-person hangouts, discussions about music, and lifelong friendships that I will always value.

Because of technical changes to the web that eventually left the site incompatible, I had to discontinue the blog around 2016. While the site ultimately ran its course, the relationships that came from it have lasted far beyond the life of the website.

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On the back of yesterday’s post, I wanted to acknowledge other folks outside of the initial team that helped out with the Roy Ayers project. After a couple of setbacks and transitions, the production side of the project stayed afloat with the help of my brother Marquis (@silencelastsforever), who I was introduced to through @rockpaperson (around 2014?), and my partner, Lexx. Marquis, Lexx, and I did a number of shoots in both NY and LA, interviewing Roy Ayers’ contemporaries like Justo Almario, Mark Adams, Ricky Lawson (RIP), the legendary Gerald Wilson, and many others. We spent hours traveling, in conversation, in kinship, and through the project grew what I would consider a lifelong bond.

In 2020 or so, in efforts to once again revive the project after another hiatus, I reached out to Traci (middle, slide 11) who is a professional archivist, with the hopes of focusing on Roy Ayers’ archives in a way to expand the project. While those efforts stalled, Traci and I developed a bi-coastal friendship where we remain in contact. Just another example of the invaluable connections that were made out of this project, despite the disappointment of not completing the intended goal. I guess all of these tangential projects are embraced as “side quests” now. Regardless, I’m forever grateful.

Slides
1-5: Marquis when he visited LA on a rainy day (35mm film)
6: Me and Marquis on the Upper West Side
7: Shooting with Roy Ayers’ daughter, Ayana
8: Lexx and Marquis in the Subway
9-10: Marquis
11: L-R Me, Lexx, Traci, Marquis, and Alethia
12-14: Roy Ayers and Gearld Wilson, 50+ years apart
15: Justo Almario in his home
16: Ricky Lawson (RIP) holding his Grammy
17: Mark Adams in his home
18: Roy Ayers and I in Mr. Ayers’ home
19: Roy Ayers playing with his idol, Lionel Hampton
20: Screenshot from Roy Ayers’ video collection

Thank you to REL, Marquis, and Lexx for capturing these moments.

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