3. “The Ringer,” Roy Ayers, from Virgo Vibes (1967)

Nowadays vibraphonist Roy Ayers is indelibly linked with funk and disco: His group The Roy Ayers Ubiquity recorded the soundtrack for the blaxploitation movie Coffy and scored top ten Billboard hits with albums Everybody Loves the Sunshine (1976) and Lifeline (1977). In 1979, after three weeks of touring in Nigeria, Ayers even recorded an album with Afro-funk pioneer Fela Kuti and his Africa 70—delivering two extended, repetitive jams, each the full length of an LP side. On the record, both bandleaders sing futuristic messages imagining worldwide Black unity by the year 2000.
 
Yet Ayers began his career as a traditional jazz player. In the 1950s, the Los Angeles native studied with his soon-to-be-famous vibraphonist neighbor, prolific Blue Note recording artist Bobby Hutcherson; in the ‘60s, he played in flautist Herbie Mann’s group, recording a series of accessible albums that drew together soul jazz, middle eastern sounds, and covers of pop hits by the Beatles and Sonny Bono.
 
Ayers’s 1967 album as a post-bop bandleader, Virgo Vibes, showcased his ability to play with tempos, textures, and phrasing. Lead-off track “The Ringer” feels complex despite being built on only three chords—and allows a group including tenor sax player Joe Henderson and pianist “Ronnie Clark” (Herbie Hancock under an assumed name) to stretch out as they please.