Friday diversion: Roy Ayers Ubiquity

You might not know Roy Ayers, but you've heard his music, as this vibraphonist, composer and all-around master of jazz funk popular in the 1970s was later sampled many times by different R&B and hip hop artists. A Tribe Called Quest themselves sampled Roy Ayers more than once, perhaps most notably for a remix of "Bonita Applebum" from their 1990 album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

His group Roy Ayers Ubiquity is perhaps most famous for the title song from his 1976 album, "Everybody Loves the Sunshine." I love the grooves and the unique take on a funky with a little bit of jazz running through it. The whole album is something that I think of as most definitely "of a time," meaning to me, it so well represents some of what the best of music was at the time it was released.

Enjoy  the song"Everybody Loves the Sunshine" embedded above or find it here on Youtube.

I'm friends with various musicians who are anti-sampling and I am sympathetic to the point of view, and I do think that when using bits of somebody else's artistic efforts, it should always be properly licensed. But it's this type of sampling that exposes the younger generation to the best music from those who came before. Without hip hop sampling Roy Ayers, I'd never have heard of him.

I feel the same way about the Beastie Boys and their many samples. I'm thinking here specifically about their sampling of Jimmy Smith's "Root Down and Get It." I loved the Beastie Boys song "Root Down" and later made a point to explore where the samples came from, which led me to one of my absolute favorite Jimmy Smith albums.

In both cases, the hip hop artists' love of funky jazz grooves from a prior generation led me to a deeper understanding of the music behind the music, and broadened my musical horizons.

I think that's a good thing.