Roy Ayers

Los Angeles-based artist Roy Ayers is a jazz fusion composer and vibraphone player who is most famous for pioneering funk jazz in the early 1970s. After providing the soundtrack for Jack Hill's 1973 film Coffy, Ayers transitioned his sound into R&B with the release of his album Mystic Voyage, in 1975. He released his most renown album, Everybody Loves the Sunshine, in 1976 and kept evolving his jazz sound to incorporate soul, hip-hop and disco. He began dabbling with house music in the 2000s and went on to win the 2004 Worldwide Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to music.