DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997              TAG: 9704090052

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Music Review 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS, staff writer 

LENGTH: 56 lines

ROY AYERS SPREADS ``SUNSHINE'' ON AUDIENCE

ROY AYERS grooved.

For more than 90 minutes Monday night, he took the Virginia Beach Pavilion audience down retro lane with his hits from the '70s.

He is one of many acts that new jack promoter On Stage Productions promises to bring to the Beach this year.

Before Ayers took the stage, show-goers were treated to a great opening act in The Good Life, a Hampton Roads-based contemporary jazz band.

Two keyboardists, a saxophonist, two vocalists and a conga player made up the band. Their rich voices and music delivered covers of the Stylistics, Herbie Hancock, Patti LaBelle, Montell Jordan and even Blackstreet.

They received huge applause. Then Ayers, decked in a stylish cream suit, stepped to the vibes. His look was different for those used to seeing him with the Afro and the bell-bottoms that marked the period when his music reigned.

His mallets sent notes into the air and they cascaded to meet with the waiting bass, drums, keyboards and vocals of his five-member band. No female vocalists sang Monday night, altering the sounds of Ayers' classic songs slightly.

He was all over the stage, tossing his mallets away in jest after a run, zipping over to sing with his vocalists, digging the talents of the bass player, generally clowning. The audience laughed at his antics and clapped along with the music.

``A Wee Bit (Baby You Got It),'' got things off on the right note. With the first notes of ``Runnin' Away,'' hands flew into the air and people swayed in their seats. All that was missing was the smell of barbecue and a summer breeze.

``I'm going to take you back to the year 1976, the year of the sunshine,'' Ayers told the crowd. ``Are you ready for this one, Virginia?''

They screamed as he began:

Just bees and things and flowers . . .

Folks jumped out of their seats and sang along, ``My life, my life, my life, in the sunshine'' - the refrain from the hit ``Everybody Loves the Sunshine.''

While Ayers delivered his contemporary jazz hits, he proved he could stay true to the music's roots with a rendition of ``A Night in Tunisia.''

Composer Dizzy Gillespie would have been proud as Ayers' mallets whisked over the vibes in a blur. The baseline didn't walk, it ran to catch up with him.

Toward the end of the set, the band members performed a scat song, inserting names of greats who have passed on: Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Donny Hathaway, Phyllis Hyman, Noel Pointer. . . .

As they rounded out the show, Ayers demonstrated his true showmanship style by handing out flowers to the women in the audience.

The sunny melodies and lyrics heralding love and romance touched all ages in the crowd.

Everybody loved the sunshine.

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