CNN —
Roy Ayers, the legendary American vibraphonist, composer and pioneer of jazz-funk, died Tuesday, his family said. He was 84.
The producer passed away in New York City after a long illness, the family announced on Facebook. A specific cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
Ayers “lived a beautiful 84 years and will be sorely missed,” his family said.
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Known as the “Godfather of Neo-soul,” Ayers had been in the music business for over four decades and was best known for his 1976 hit “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” released by his band, Roy Ayers Ubiquity.
A Los Angeles native, Ayers had a natural affinity for music from a young age. His mother, Ruby Ayers, was a piano instructor, while his father, Roy Sr., was a trombonist, according to a biography on his website.
Ayers began to demonstrate his musical aptitude “by the tender age of five, by which time he was playing boogie woogie tunes on the piano,” it says. “He turned to the steel guitar by the age of (nine), had stints during his teens playing flute, trumpet and drums before embracing the vibes as his instrument of choice.”
By the 1960s, Ayers was a well-rounded professional musician, frequently collaborating with groove pioneer Herbie Mann.
Ayres took the glassy, elongated tones of the vibraphone – the percussion instrument resembling a marimba or xylophone – and moved away from the uptempo jazz sound pioneered by Lionel Hampton. With Ayres’ hands at the mallets, the vibes were remolded into a tool of spacy musical exploration.
“There was no written music, scores or charts,” Philip Woo, who played keys on “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” told The Guardian in 2017. “He had one chord, which he would move around all over the place, very intuitively.”
Until recently Ayers had been a frequent collaborator with contemporary hip-hop heavyweights such as Kanye West. Ayres also left his stamp on cinema as the composer for “Coffy,” the 1973 blaxploitation film that launched the career of Pam Grier.
“Everybody Loves the Sunshine” has more than 130 million streams on Spotify and has been remixed and covered by artists like Mary J. Blige and Tupac.
Rolling Stone magazine described Ayers’ music as sound “that wove lush soul, elastic jazz, and tight funk.”
“His family ask that you respect their privacy at this time,” the Facebook statement said. “A celebration of Roy’s life will be forthcoming.”
