RAMP

Originating from Cincinnati, the acronym Ramp stood for Roy Ayers Music Productions and issued its lone album in 1977 to scant notice at the time. As collector interest in jazz-funk legend Roy Ayers later surged, that record attained cult status as a rare-groove landmark. Bolstered by the standout “Daylight,” which A Tribe Called Quest later sampled for “Bonita Applebaum,” and the ensemble’s reading of Ayers’ “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” the pair of anti-gravity soul/jazz-funk pearls has commanded steep sums on the collector market. The album resurfaced on CD first in Japan in early 2007, then stateside that October. After the initial release the lineup—bassist Nate White, drummer John Manuel, guitarist Landy Shores, and vocalists Sibel Thrasher and Sharon Matthews—disbanded, only to regroup in the early 2000s.