I first heard Roy Ayers on Gilles Peterson. It was the vibes that did it. I didn’t know it at the time but it turns out that the tones and frequencies emitted from the Vibraphone cause me to roll around on my back like a dog getting its belly rubbed. If I was any more of an egomaniac than I am, I might have thought that Roy Ayers made music according to my very own brain chemistry.
More important than this discovery was that I thought I’d found an obscure musician with whom I’d be able to impress my mates.
“Hey cunts, listen to this guy who you’ve totally never heard of. I discovered him and, therefore, am vastly superior.”
It turns out that pretty much every hip-hop artist to ever own a sampler had used Roy’s music in some capacity. Everyone knows Roy Ayers. Why didn’t I? How had I got to my mid-twenties and never heard of the one musician guaranteed to make me grin like a paedophile in a school? I soon discovered that it was part of an enormous conspiracy, involving MI5 and the Russian Mafia, to discredit me.
Anyway, enough about my troubles. Starting with the best vibes performance you’ll ever see ever, ever, ever, in your whole life, ever, here’s some non-GTA IV related Roy Ayers to sort you right out.
