Roy Ayers Quotes

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Roy Ayers

Profession : Musician

Birth : September 10, 1940

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.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

Soul has no musical geographical or racial boundaries.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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.

Roy Ayers

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

Roy Ayers