Jazz musician and composer Roy Ayers, 84, died on March 4. The vibraphone player was variously referred to as a post-bop, jazz-funk, acid jazz, and neo soul artist (no, I’m not going to pretend I know what the difference is). His biggest hits were the 1970s "Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” "Running Away,” and "No Stranger to Love,” though he continued recording and performing worldwide into the 2020s. Ayers’s music was made more popular by being heard on the soundtracks of Coffy, Jackie Brown, Ant-Man, and Summer of Sam. He told interviewer Grace Wang that “my mother and father took me to see Lionel Hampton when I was five years old, and he gave me a set of vibraphone mallets. I started playing the vibes later on, but that was my most inspirational person I met, he inspired me to go and play vibes.” As for his music being used in Jackie Brown, “I was really surprised because I went to see Jackie Brown, and I had no idea that my music was in the movie. I said ‘Oh my god, if they hadn’t done the right thing, I’d sue them!’ And when it got to end of the film it said ‘Roy Ayers, music,’ so they did all the legal stuff, and they sent me a check, you know, it was cool.”
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