Welcome in the week with Roy Ayers

Roy Ayers - Hummin'

Roy Ayers - The Memory

So, um, a bit of a delay in getting the records onto the PC but should have it done tonight. In the meantime, lets have a bit of Roy Ayers to start the week.

I don't think I really need to tell you anything about this soul legend as his music speaks for him. I've always been a big fan of his music, particularly from the Roy Ayers Music Productions (RAMP) period. Seriously, if you've never heard Everybody Loves The Sunshine you need to go buy that right now.

I've selected a mixed bag of Ayers today, the first track, Hummin' is taken from his album Ubiquity from 1971. It's a blissed out track with some lovely vocals from Roy and a real RAMP feel to the track - like sunshine laid down on vinyl, right down to the expected but still superb xylophone solo at the end. This track had a brief rebirth in 2001 when Marley Marl covered it with Roy Ayers on his album Re-Entry.

The second track, The Memory is off his 1976 album Vibrations and came out the year before RAMP's Come Into Knowledge. It's a lot sleazier than Hummin' from it's distorted bassline upwards but maintains the beautiful harmonies of his earlier work. The track slowly builds up layers as it progresses with the piano being of particular importance. It's a personal favourite of mine and it gets me everytime when Roy comes in with his heartfelt plea about two thirds of the way through the song.

It shouldn't be too hard to find a decent copy of either album on vinyl. Otherwise I'm not too sure where you can get a copy of Hummin' but The Memory and 31 other great songs by the master are available on his anthology album Destination Motherland which you can buy HERE