Roy Ayers
Saturday 3rd November
Tickets £25 | Doors 19:30
Perhaps Roy’s karmic destiny as a vibraphonist was by his parents’ decision to allow him attend a concert featuring the great Lionel Hampton’s Big Band. During “Hamps” customary stroll down the aisle to thank you his audience for attending, he noticed and ecstatic five-year-old boy. So impressed was “Hamp” by the child’s ebullience he walked over and presented young Roy Ayers Jr. with the gift of a lifetime- a pair of vibe mallets. During Roy’s adolescence, although his parents required that his schoolwork remain his primary focus, his mother managed to fit in piano lessons, which served to enhance his public school education. In addition to Roy’s involvement with various instruments, he also sang in the church choir. Then, at seventeen years of age his parents presented him with a set of vibes and the rest, as they say, is history.
Roy began at first study independently, then eventually discovered that Bobby Hutcherson, a rising vibraphonist, lived in his neighborhood, and subsequently he began to work under Bobby’s tutelage. Their relationships as friends and musicians blossomed, with regular meetings between the two to collaborate and practice. During this period, Roy went on to form very first group of which he was the leader, while a student of Jefferson High school. Appropriately enough, he first named the group the Jefferson Combo, later re-naming the group to the Latin Lyrics. After graduation from Jefferson High, Roy attended Los Angeles City College where he studied advanced music theory.
By 1961 Roy had become a well-rounded, full-fledged professional musician, and as is customary in nuturing African-American households, at twenty-one the keys to the door. As the adage goes, if you are blessed, when one closes another one opens. Fortunately for Roy, he had just begun to receive his musical blessings, as early in his career, he collaborated and performed with likes of Chico Hamilton, Teddy Edwards, Jack Wilson, Phineas Newborn and Gerald Wilson. Shortly thereafter, Roy made his recording debut with Curtis Amy, a highly regarded saxophonist, with whom he recorded “Way Down” and “Tippin on Through”.