This is equally as appropriate as the soundtrack for the blaxploitation movie (starring Pam Grier) as it is a lone standing LP. Roy Ayers is one of the true winners in Instrumental Pop as his music comes with a consistent gleam and illumination that is unparalleled in its breeziness. This Jazz-Funk score is just another gem in his formidable catalog which has seen him collaborate with everyone from Fela Kuti to Guru. Despite the stylish and polished nature of these compositions, the songs never lack an organic emphasis that would bar it from rightfully entering aural heaven.

I would best describe the songs as a series of vibraphonic revelations mixed with a bit of marimba and gritty syncopation. “Coffy Is The Color” has a descending groove only uplifted into brief bliss by concisely timed vocals that more or less say “coffy is the color…of your skin”. The latter half of this song remains instrumental and ascends into a summery warmth. Then we dive into the sensual “Priscilla’s Theme” which opens up a minute later into a brash exercise of riveting instrumental free form driven by Roy’s Marimba’s. Perhaps the most mesmerizing moment in the first half of the soundtrack comes with “Coffy Sauna”. It’s one of those songs that makes you stare into the distance with nothing but scattered thoughts and eventually an open mind. Those are the moments you wait for in instrumentally driven albums, and when it finally comes it feels to me like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

This everlasting ambiance remains in different forms as you make your way to more vocal heavy songs like “Coffy Baby”. To me it feels like a Soul performance over ambient jazz, and on paper this to me is already good music. This song probably does more to spur on the collective theme of placing skin color on an ambiguous scale with the lyrics: “coffy baby…you can’t see right from wrong”. Keeping with the blending theme, “Shining Symbol” evolves into a gospel inspired anthem for Black pride where some tightly packed bass makes an appearance. An equally rare appearance is made by the electric guitar on “Exotic Dance”, but it has never felt more in place here.

Many listeners have a collection of LP’s they like to put on in the warm summer nights or even the harshest winters all the same. This fits right in with those bunch during times when you want to be soothed by your music and escape the seasonal and emotional contexts. It’s easy listening at its best, and it does not come any more lavish and complex as it does from Roy Ayers.

by Abid