Not only does everybody know the sunshine, they sure love the sunshine; It’s a high point on an album of high points.
Falling roughly chronologically in the middle, Everybody Loves The Sunshine was part of an astonishing fifteen album run from Roy Ayers (either as Roy Ayers or Roy Ayers Ubiquity) between 1972 and 1979, pioneering jazz-funk and progressing the sound into the acid jazz movement. He was rightfully dubbed as “The Godfather of Neo Soul”. The LA-born vibraphonist, composer and producer had first made waves in the post-bop jazz world in the 1960s, recording with Gerald Wilson and Herbie Mann before forming his band Roy Ayers Ubiquity in the early 1970s. I think that Roy Ayers is the first artist who we have written about twice for Sunday Classic, with his transportive Virgo Vibes being an album we raved about back in February of 2024.
We just love a guy who can deliver on vibes.
Recorded between the iconic Electric Lady (New York) and Larrabee (West Hollywood) studios, Everybody Loves The Sunshine was released in the early summer of 1976 on Polydor Records. In no small part due to some blazing heat that year and the album’s titular track providing an immaculate soundtrack, (“Everyone is feeling the heat, moving slow to the low rhythm of the congas on a song that perfects the art of loping.” - Pitchfork) it would spend much of the rest of the year on the Billboard 200 chart. The harder-edged funk of the mid-70s was very much on the ascendancy, but Ayers’ languid and summery hues really did for funk what he had done for jazz with the vibraphone a decade earlier. Vibes. Ayers had moved beyond traditional jazz into a more expansive fusion sound, incorporating electric keyboards, clavinet and the all-new ARP synths to lock in laid-back funk grooves. The prolific period would also see Ayers and Ubiquity evolve into more vocal-led arrangements.
The title track is indeed iconic, a gorgeous 4 minutes of underrated grooves and subtlety, but there are so many other highlights across the record that contribute towards both the swooning hot warmth and the hypnotic energy. The album opener for one - ‘Hey Uh-What You Say Come On’ - has unbelievable drive to it, as does ‘You And Me My Love’, both utilising layers of vocals. Similarly, ‘It Ain’t Your Sign It’s Your Mind’ shifts back into sharper funk territory with punchy horns. There are some lush spiritual threads too, ‘The Third Eye’ has lush and spacey instrumentation and the soulful vocals across ‘People and the World’ and ‘Keep On Walking’ are special stuff. On that topic, Chicas’ (Debbie Darby) voice is utterly essential, and a beautiful companion to Ayers across the songs.
Decades after release, it remains a summer staple and one of the most evocative records of its era. Guys, it’s just bees and things and flowers.