In the weekends, he performed as a tabla artist accompanying a sitar player at A Taste of India, an Indian restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York.
[2] Steve Gorn spotted him in a Manhattan restaurant called Raga, eventually attracting the attention of Miles Davis.
Roy subsequently performed and recorded with many leading jazz musicians, including Davis, Dave Liebman, Pharoah Sanders, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Herbie Mann, Pat Metheny, Lester Bowie, Airto Moreira, Charlie Haden, Purna Das Baul, and Ornette Coleman (playing in Coleman's electric band Prime Time).
Roy has appeared and offered workshops at RhythmFest, the Starwood Festival, and at the SpiritDrum Festival,[6] a special tribute to the late Babatunde Olatunji (co-sponsored by ACE and Musart) with Muruga Booker, Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, Halim El-Dabh, Richie "Shakin'" Nagan, Jeff Rosenbaum and Sikiru Adepoju, among others.
[7] He often played with Muruga Booker in the Global Village Ceremonial Band, and with Michael Wolff & Impure Thoughts.
In the first half of 2006, Roy travelled to Japan to appear in a tribute for David Baker, his recently deceased recording engineer and friend.
In addition to tabla, Roy also played a variety of percussion instruments including shakers, bells, rain stick, and flexatone.