Featured Artist: Roy Ayers
CD Title: Virgin Ubiquity II
Year: 2004
Record Label: Rapster Records Style: Soul / Funk Jazz Review:
Vibesman/singer, Roy Ayers, is living proof that longevity is the name of the game in the music business. The fact that Ayers has been around successfully churning out jazzy-funk, hit after hit, means that he possesses just the right ingredient to keep the music mill running. That ingredient is his ability to musically bridge the gap from past to present generations. Even if there were a teenager who may not be familiar with his name, which is hardly likely, they would most definitely hear samples of one of his musical licks on numerous compilations of today's singers. And every spin of a sampled Ayers original is as sweet as the first time it was created.
This CD takes you into unreleased recordings from Ayers spanning six years of music. The CD's opener, "Holiday," which features a catchy whispered phrase "we gotta have a holiday" throughout, is a resounding tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and the need for granting him a holiday in recognition of his good works. "I am Your Mind II" follows with a seductively sounding Ayers talking to his woman about everything from finding herself in this life to him "needing more than sex to nourish his equilibrium." The CD is never boring because it wisely runs the gamut of funk, some jazz and even some seventies-type R and B. Elsewhere on the compilation, there are songs that can soothe frayed minds like "Liquid Love," "Third Time," and the highly contagious instrumental that is "Wide Open." Vibraphone aside, Ayers proves that he is also a talented brother vocally and this is made unequivocally clear on the brassy filled romp "I Like The Way," the R&B-esque "Come to Me," and "Sunshine (Demo).
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