Roy Ayers: Coffy (soundtrack, 180g) [ELEMENTAL]

Why you'll love it

This limited Elemental Music reissue is pressed on 180g virgin vinyl in the EU. Ayers composed, played and produced the whole score, and his vibraphone sets the tone from the first bars of "Coffy Is the Color."

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Limited edition
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Pam Grier plays a Los Angeles nurse who takes on the city's mobsters single-handed in Jack Hill's 1973 film (he wrote it as well as directing it), and Roy Ayers gave her a soundtrack with exactly the right amount of strut. American International Pictures put Coffy in cinemas that year, and it climbed to No. 1 at the US box office in its 14th week.

Ayers was already a celebrated jazz vibraphonist, and he built the score from vibes, funk and soul-jazz grooves. "Coffy Is the Color" sets the mood, "Aragon" and "Escape" ratchet up the tension, "Brawling Broads" kicks hard, and Dee Dee Bridgewater sings on "Coffy Baby." The cues are short and punchy, so the album plays like a funk record with a plot rather than a reel of incidental music, and it works every bit as well with the lights on.

Quentin Tarantino counts Coffy among his favourite films and later cast Grier in Jackie Brown. The music was written for a revenge thriller, though in our experience it's mostly used for doing the dishes with unusual style.

Also at Kops: more Roy Ayers on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Polydor / Elemental Music (cat# 700244), a reissue of the 1973 soundtrack.