[9] He attended Thomas Jefferson High School that formed a formative part of the Central Avenue jazz scene.

[10][11] During high school, Ayers sang in the church choir[12] and fronted a band named The Latin Lyrics, in which he played steel guitar and piano.

[14] He rose to prominence when he dropped out of Los Angeles City College,[15] and joined jazz flautist Herbie Mann in 1966.

[17] Ayers was responsible for the highly regarded soundtrack to Jack Hill's 1973 blaxploitation film Coffy, which starred Pam Grier.

In late 1979, Ayers scored his only top ten single on Billboard's Hot Disco/Dance chart with "Don't Stop The Feeling", which was also the leadoff single from his 1980 album No Stranger to Love, whose title track was sampled in Jill Scott's 2001 song "Watching Me" from her debut album Who Is Jill Scott?

In the late 1970s, Ayers toured Nigeria for six weeks with Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, one of Africa's most recognizable musicians.

[7][19] In 1981, Ayers produced an album with the singer Sylvia Striplin, Give Me Your Love (Uno Melodic Records, 1981).

[7] That same year, he also produced a second album called Africa, Center of the World on Polydor Records along with James Bedford and Ayers's bass player William Henry Allen.

The LP produced the 12" single release called Love is in the feel which, along with other tracks on the album, promoted the use of a LinnDrum an instrument which gained enormous popularity amongst pop and jazz funk musicians from 1982 to 1985.

At this time Ayers' music was promoted extensively by the UK BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Robbie Vincent.

Ayers has played his live act for millions of people across the globe, including Japan, Australia, England and other parts of Europe.