In an interview with an Indian newspaper, TelegramMr. Roy recalled: “Suddenly Miles said to me: ‘You go’ – no music, nothing, just like that. Realizing that I need to adjust my vote, I start playing the ta-ka-na-ta-n-ka-tin rhythm. Herbie nodded to the beat and gave a ‘Yes!’ started playing with It was just the two of us for a while and then John and Jack joined. Then the others started and it’s total chaos, at least for me. I’m totally drowning in sound. I keep playing, but I can’t hear a single beat playing for the next half hour.”
These sessions gave Davis’s “On the Corner”. Mr. Roy joined Davis at Davis’s other 1972 sessions, providing material for “Big Fun” and “Get Up With It,” both published in 1974, and with him at the Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center (now David Geffen Hall). ) gave a concert. Davis’ 1973 album “In Concert”.
Mr. Roy received a copy of “On the Corner” when it was published in 1972. But after disappointment in the sessions, he didn’t listen until the 1990s, when his then graduate student son, told him, “All hip-hop guys follow him.”
In 1974, Mr. Roy married Geeta Vashi. She survives him along with her sons and Mr. Roy’s sisters Kalpana Chakraborty and Shibani Ray Chaudhury and her brother Samarendra Roy Chowdhury. He lived in Wilmington.
Mr. Roy supported saxophonist Pharoah Sanders on albums “Wisdom Through Music” (1972), “Village of the Pharoahs” (1973) and “Love in Us All” (1974), and later with Mr. Sanders. Mr. Roy appeared with saxophonist Dave Liebman in Davis’ band in “Lookout Farm” (1974), “Drum Ode” (1975) and “Sweet Hands” (1975). (“Sweet hands” is a translation of a Bengali term praising a virtuoso tabla player.)
As a leader in the mid-1970s, he released two albums, both featuring Mr. Liebman: “Ashirbad” (1975) and “Past Dreams” (1976), also included the Indian classical musician. Sultan Khan Sarangi is on a stringed string instrument.