Roy Ayers Quotations

Having good health, being able to breathe and be happy, that's one of the most beautiful gifts. On top of that, I have the gift to play music and make people happy through that. I'm just telling you from my heart, I'm so in love with life.

The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.

What we call soul has been around a long time. It comes out of a particular culture that is African in origin, but influenced by 250 years of slavery, as well as other forms of racial oppression.

I don't trip on that much. I just like to enjoy life and be happy.

It's a wonderful feeling just being in this creative motif.

Some people really trip on success or popularity. My friends would talk to me about that, about tripping on all this stuff, but you know what I tripped on? I started buying property.

Now I get exposure first with people directly in the clubs. This is a unique situation for me.

I've been sampled so much and I'm glad it's happened, it's a great compliment.

I couldn't get my album played over the so-called smooth jazz stations. Jazz stations would not play it. You don't always know who you're making that soul connection with.

Soul has no musical geographical or racial boundaries.

A lot of the hip hop artists don't write music. They write words.

I don't like rap that you can't understand. The youth is so quick and alert.

I was with PolyGram; that was the big label that I was with for the longest, like 12 years.

You grow and learn a lot about the industry and what happens behind closed doors over the years.

I generally sell my records online or at the show. You can undersell the distributor and the stores, and people know what they're getting cause they've just seen you live.

DJs and people in the street know what they like.

I'd definitely love to play in Nashville again. That would be really good.

I always had this energy level that made me want to come to New York.

I'm celebrating my 40th year in show business this year.

Artists don't always know. Almost every song I ever recorded that was a hit at the majors that the promotional people picked I didn't think it would be a hit. I was wrong every time!

I don't think I'm really so unique. If every black person looked at their life they would quickly discover that they have been influenced by every type of music prevalent in America.

I still look good. I'm trippin', but people tell me that all the time. So check it out, I'm 63, and still kicking. I've been putting records out every year.

I was being an artist, being sensitive and technical as artists are. I'm sure Leonardo Da Vinci did that. Artists don't always feel the same as others feel about their work.

Most artists have contracts directly with the record company, and when they do music, all of their music is owned by the record company. But I did mine through a production company.

Most musicians count at the beginning, and never count and talk to their musicians after that. They only talk to them at the end of the song. But I would count with them and talk.

Polydor used to release me at different times around the world. You get your royalty statement: sales here, here, but never over there!

I got married in 1973, and my career was really at its peak between 1975, and '81-'82. Everything I put out could do no wrong. Like you can't imagine.

People in England were coming up to me, saying, My mother and father turned me on to your music. This happened to me 20 years ago. When I was 40 they were saying that.

It's a new day and new things are happening. There will be other ways for artists to sell their records and distribute their product.

I'm not imprisoned within any particular style or category of music. I grew up in the be-bop culture or what people today call classic jazz.

The true beauty of music is that it connects peopl. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.

People are always defining and re-defining music. My style of playing has been characterized as smooth jazz and acid jazz. I listen as I play; I'm not caught up in defining the type of music I play.

I think music all the time.

Only a certain number of people go to a store over the period of a year. When a person sees my record on the shelf, it eliminates someone else's record from being sold. It's about continuing to try to find new ways to sell records.

Back in the day, I used to be in the studio recording 20 hours a day. And that was all of the time. I still record a lot of hours, but I don't go as long as I used to.

When I was recording from '70 to '82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing.

The majors, they have to control the distribution, the record outlets, the radio and, in some cases, even the venues. And downloading and pirating have also put pressure on the majors.

But I did mine through a production company. All the music I did, I gave to the production company. Then the production company would give the record company the album. I used to do all my albums like that. It was fantastic. But now, understand, I have never planned to do anything with these other tapes. The one that are released, like the Virgin Ubiquity you have there, I wasn't going to do anything with that music. One day, I was talking to this guy that owns BBE over in England, and I said I've got some tapes and stuff that you might be interested in, and he went berserk.

The true beauty of music is that it connects people.