'In The Dark' was produced by Stanley Clarke in 1984. With Grover Washington and Tom Browne as the main horn players the album is about the perfect mix of slick mid 80's boogie funk and the kind of jazz-funk Roy pioneered a decade earlier on the title song,"Sexy,Sexy Sexy" and the late in the day disco-funk of "Compadre".
"I Can't Help It" is a mild vibe led ballad. But the most potent track to me would "Goree Island",a sizzling electronic afro-funk number celebrating what I'll call....the rooted futurism of the jazz-funk genre itself. It's got the African polyrhythms down pat but also this 80's electro/boogie funk production too.
On the more obvious deep 80's funk of "Poo Poo La La" Roy himself raps a bit about his desire for a lover who'll truly understand a musicians lifestyle and not take it personally. Great groove and wittily pointed lyric.
The last two numbers "Blast The Box" and "Love Is In The Feel" are both more contemporary break dance type tunes but still with plenty of Roy's flavor.
Ayers was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in a musical family. At the age of five, Lionel Hampton gave him his first pair of mallets, which led to the vibraphone being his trademark sound for decades.
The area of Los Angeles that Ayers grew up in, now known as "South Central", but then known as "South Park", was the epicenter of the Southern California Black Music Scene.
The schools Roy attended (Wadsworth Elementary, Nevins Middle School, and Thomas Jefferson High School) were all close to the famed Central Avenue, Los Angeles' equivalent of Harlem's Lenox Avenue and Chicago's State Street.
Roy would likely have been exposed to music as it not only emanated from the many nightclubs and bars in the area, but also poured out of many of the homes where the musicians who kept the scene alive lived in and around Central. His high school, Thomas Jefferson High School, from which Ayers graduated, produced some of the most talented new musicians, such as Dexter Gordon.
1. IN THE DARK 2. SEXY, SEXY, SEXY 3. I CAN'T HELP IT 4. COMPADRE 5. GOREE ISLAND 6. POO POO LA LA 7. BLAST THE BOX 8. LOVE IS IN THE FEEL
Bonustracks :
9. IN THE DARK (DANCE MIX) 10. POO POO LA LA (EDIT) 11. LOVE IS IN THE FEEL (7" VERSION)