Ray (Pinky) Velazquez
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Ray (Pinky) Velazquez
Since 1973 Ray has been involved with Disco by way of David Mancuso's "Loft" and Eddie Rivera's IDRC and later his tenure at Vanguard Records. Read Bernie's exclusive interview for more.
Written By Bernard Lopez of DiscoMusic.com
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| Disco DJ Ray "Pinky" Velazquez |
Ray Velazquez was the "A & R" man and Disco consultants for Vanguard from 1979 to 1984. Ray was hired by owners Seymour and Maynard Solomon who originally started the Vanguard Recording Society in the 1950s as an outlet for jazz, folk and classical music. Around 1977 Vanguard jumped on the Disco bandwagon and began releasing 12 inch Disco singles by The Players Association, Poussez!, Frisky and others in large part through the efforts of Danny Weiss (producer) and Mark Berry (engineer). Despite being a small independent label Vanguard made an impact on the Disco and dance scenes right on up through the 1980s. In 1979 Ray was brought on board to help promote and scout for talent since he was a working Disco DJ and knew the New York club scene well.
"Fonda Raes "Over Like A Fat Rat" and Carol Williams "Cant Get Away From Your Love" theres always room for the piano." |
Ray Velazquez's Musical Beginnings
Ray "Pinky" Velazquez was born on May 28, 1955 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. The nickname "Pinky" as in "little" came about to distinguish him from his dad with the same name. Ray was brought up in a musical family. His father (Ray Sr.), an accomplished guitarist, and his mother (Gloria), a vocalist, regularly performed on Puerto Rican radio during the 1950s. This along with his upbringing in Manhattans "Spanish Harlem/El Barrio" during the 60s and 70s exposed him to many styles of music. Ray listened to everything from classical, which his dad played, to Top 40 hits like Elvis Presleys "All Shook Up." Ray says, "The piano line on "All Shook Up"
Ive always loved the sound of the piano playing those low notes and Ive incorporated that onto records that Ive mixed. Its very R & B and very commanding." I asked Ray which records he worked on best demonstrate this and he replies, "Fonda Raes "Over Like A Fat Rat" and Carol Williams "Cant Get Away From Your Love" theres always room for the piano." He cites early House music as a general example. Despite Rays love for music and certain instruments he admits he cant play or read music and that it had made it a little harder for him to express what he would like done in the studio.
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| Ray with Michael Gomes of Polydor Records. |
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| A night at the Ipanema Discotheque circa 1977-78 |
The Ipanema Discotheque
His father, who was now a top audio salesman at New Yorks "Leonard Radio," was always showing New York Disco DJs the newest audio gear which included amplifiers, turntables, mixers and reel to reel machines. Rays dad got to know many popular Disco DJs because of his position. One of those was a Brazilian DJ by the name of Ronald Soares who spun seven days a week(!) at The Ipanema Discotheque in midtown Manhattan. Ronnie asked Rays father if he knew anyone who would be willing to take over one night a week for him. Rays name was quickly brought up and soon a meeting was arranged. Ray showed up one Wednesday afternoon and after playing only fifteen minutes was hired to spin one night a week at The Ipanema. Wednesday nights were normally slow, but within six months Ray had built up a nice following and was also given Thursday nights and within a year also given Fridays.
Ray was a member of New Yorks original record pool run by David Mancuso of "The Loft." While there he met fellow member Eddie Rivera who was DJing at "The Cork and Bottle." |
Ray stayed at the Ipanema up till around 1978, but felt he wanted to branch out to other styles of music and later moved to the Upper West Side to an after-hours rock club called Cartoon Alley. He stayed here till 1982 and played everything from the Clash to New Romantic tracks mixed with Disco. Ray also did guest spots at Studio 54 and Le Mouche to keep him busy.
The Sunshine Sound Edits
While at The Ipanema Ray would create his own reel to reel edits of his favourite tracks and head down to Sunshine Sound and have them pressed on acetate discs for him to play in the clubs. He made a number of these plates at Sunshine and frequently ran into other Disco DJs such as Jim Burgess who were also pressing their own special edits. Not only did Ray play these plates for himself, but he also made copies for other Disco DJs like John "Jellybean" Benitez. His favourite edit was a three-song plate of Brazilian tracks called "B-2."
David Mancuso and Eddie Rivera
Ray was a member of New Yorks original record pool run by David Mancuso of "The Loft." While there he met fellow member Eddie Rivera who was DJing at "The Cork and Bottle." Eddie went on to form his own record pool called "IDRC" or the International Disco Record Center to which Ray jumped ship to. Ray felt very comfortable with Eddie and knew he could meet more industry contacts there. Eddie helped expose the DJs through the pool and his publication called "Spinner." Eddie opened up the Hispanic DJ market and it was all a very positive experience for Ray.
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| Ray "Pinky" Velazquez with Dance Music Report's Jim Knapp. |
Dynamo was a start, but not the place to continue a career. The label did not have the resources to commit to signing artists or pressing albums in quantity and passed on many releases. In fact Ray explains how he wanted Dynamo to sign up a new French import by MBT Soul and later a Love and Kisses (Alec R. Costandinos) track called "Ive Found Love." Ray knew this would be an awesome acquisition, but Dynamos owner didnt or couldnt commit and they lost it to Casablanca Records who paid upwards of $60,000 (US) for the rights. It went on to be huge and a quintessential Disco classic.
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| Vanguard Records 12 inch jacket from the Disco era. |
Vanguard Records
Going back to Eddie Rivera and IDRC, it is here that Ray "Pinky" Velazquez is introduced to Danny Weiss of Vanguard Records. Danny was Vanguards in-house jazz producer and looking for ways to promote new tracks to the Disco DJs. Danny wanted to tap Rays club and DJ experience as a "Disco consultant" and get his input as to how-to tailor songs and mixes for club play. He later would make Ray head of A & R for Vanguard.
It is Danny Weiss who first played an acapella and rough piano mix of Fonda Raes "Over Like A Fat Rat" for Ray |
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| Ray at the controls and keeping the energy going. |
Born To Be Alive
Now just as with Dynamo, Vanguard was a small independent label and sometimes not able to compete for new talent. According to Ray, Vanguards biggest missed opportunity came when they let Patrick Hernandezs "Born To Be Alive" pass them by. Ray had gotten an early promo import of "Born To Be Alive" and was playing it at The Ipanema. It was another hot French Disco record that was burning up the clubs over in Europe and Vanguard passed on Rays recommendation because they felt the price was too high.
Seeing as Vanguard passed on the track Ray decided to offer it to his friend Ray Caviano of RFC/Warner. Caviano also liked the song and thought he would pick up the rights to the record no matter what the cost. After a lot of research and playing it to a lot of radio people across the U. S. Caviano became skeptical about its potential for radio airplay. He knew it would work well in the clubs, but he thought radio wouldnt bite and so passed on the record as well. However, Ray had also given a copy to Vince Pellegrino of CBS Records and they ended up acquiring the US rights to the song and ran with it. As a consolation Ray was asked to do an edit and extend "Born To Be Alive" for Columbias 12 inch release. Although Ray received a gold record and a congratulation letter for his edit, he was never given credit on the label. Another edit that was not credited to him was Eddie Grants "Walking On Sunshine" on Portrait Records.
Bobby Orlando and Public Enemy
Ray and Vanguard also associated with producers such as Bobby Orlando who had brought in Ronnie Griffith with "(The Best Part of) Breakin Up" (SPV-54) and The Flirts "Jukebox (Dont Put Another Dime)" (OR-719 & OR-724) to Vanguard through the "O" Records subsidiary. Ray recalls, "Bobby had the Euro sound going into a more pop New Wave sound..."
Ray even signed Public Enemy when they were known as Spectrum City with "Lies." |
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| Ray checking the video feed at New York's Cartoon Alley. |
Saved By Alisha
Vanguard would continue along, but never really hitting any pay dirt until 15-year old Alisha walked through the doors with her first hit "All Night Passion" on SPV-72. Ray recalls that Alisha came with her mother and when he heard the demo of "All Night Passion" he ran to Maynard Solomons office. Now Maynard always told the staff not to disturb him if his door was closed since it meant that he was working on a book about the life history of Beethoven. Regardless, Ray Velazquez knocked and told him to sign up Alisha without delay and fortunately they did because she didnt require much money. "All Night Passion" went on to become a monster, hit especially with the Freestyle crowd.
The two go way back to the days of The Loft with David Mancuso and Ray Velazquez credits Larry Levan with steering him in a more R & B direction |
Larry Levan and the Paradise Garage
An odd release was the Larry Levan & Brode Williams production of "Electric Automan" by Tony Paris on SPV-81. This was something that Ray says Larry lost interest in and pretty much gave to Vanguard. Ray knew Larry and would pay him regular visits at the Garage and Larry would even let him spin a few records so there was a relationship between the two. The two go way back to the days of The Loft with David Mancuso and Ray credits Larry with steering him in a more R & B direction. He says, "Larry opened me up to a new-world of R & B music and R & B dance that I wanted to use in my club (Ipanema)."
I posed the simple question as to why Ray left Vanguard and he replies, "The honest answer
I did not believe that Vanguard was taking the avenue to become a serious dance label. In other words the videos were not there, the commitment to do albums for some of our groups was not sincerely there
I became frustrated because a lot of the records that I did want for the label, a lot of the groups I did want-we were not planning because of money issues and a lot of these groups went to other labels and became noteworthy."
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| Ray helped put together a classic dose of Disco on the CD Vanguard Dance Classics Volume 1. |
Wrap Up
After leaving Vanguard, Ray continued spinning at Car-Tunes and later Backstage in Westport, Connecticut where he really got into dance rock, reggae and alternative tracks. He finally put the turntables to rest around 1985 and decided to concentrate on doing A & R and cultivating R & B and Hip-Hop artists which he is doing to this very day. Ray recently helped Vanguard put together a hot compilation featuring the very best of Vanguards dance artists called "Vanguard Dance Classics Volume 1." It contains twelve tracks including Fonda Rae's "Over Like A Fat Rat" segued together for that non-stop energy feel.
A big thank you to Ray for taking time to speak wioth me and share his experiences.
The List
Below is a list of material that Ray was involved with. Rays involvement was the signing of the group at minimum. Additional work depending on the project, was mixing, additional production, extended club mixes, radio editing
- Come On and Do It - Poussez
- Over Like A Far Rat - Fonda Rae
- Till You Surrender - Rainbow Brown (featuring Fonda Rae on vocals)
- Dance To the Music - Junior Byron
- Cold Fire - Gypsy Lane
- Can't Get away From your Love - Carol Williams (Original remix and Special 10 inch Dub ReMix)
- Lies - Spectrum City (a. k. a. Public Enemy: Their first ever release)
- Check Out The Radio - Spectrum City (Public Enemy: featured in the movie South Central and on the Warner Bros. South Central Soundtrack) Note: Our Vanguard next release with Spectrum City (Public Enemy would have been a track with James Brown featured LIVE) Unfortunately, Spectrum City was not released due to lack of significant sales despite my ongoing plea for one or two more releases.
- The Get Down Mellow Sound - The Player's Association
- We Got The Groove - Player's Association
- Electric Kingdom - Twilight 22
- Siberian Nights - Twilight 22
- All Night Passion - Alisha
- Baby Talk - Alisha
- Too Turned On - Alisha
- The Best Part Of Breaking Up - Ronnie Griffith
- Jukebox - The Flirts
- Savage Lover - The Ring
- Jump - The Ring
- You've Got Me Dancing In My Sleep - Frisky
- Burn Me Up - Frisky
- Tutty Frutty Booty - Frisky
- Love At First Site - Frisky
- Electric Automan - Tony Paris
- I Love Music-J.T.
Flip Records (Vanguard's Dance Rock Label):
- You're First You're Last You're Everything- Endgames (produced by Martin Rushent (Human League producer)
- 14 Games-Lex (produced and mixed/remixed by Ray "Pinky" Velazquez; This was a big record with the rock clubs nationally and "Screamer of the Week" on WLIR Radio, Garden City New York)
- In Memory Of Your Name - Private Lives (Never Released-Licensed from Chrysalis Records England, produced by Tony Visconti)
Our initial intentions were to go after and license the following projects for the Flip Label, but were prohibitive due to our budgeting limitations: Der Komissar-Falco, Machine Brent-Falco, Pass The Dutchie-Musical Youth
Other outside Vanguard mentions:
- Big Noise-Base (1985 Prism Records)
Too Much Too Soon- Denroy Morgan(1986 Buddha/Sutra Records - Boogie Down-Double Feature (1979 Makossa Records; First club mix ever on an African record)
- The King on Long Play- The Gregg Peters Band (Elvis Presley type vocals)
- Cloud Nine-Mystery Assignment (1985 Metropolis Records)
- Only Live is Left Alive- Ian North
- Romance-Ian North
- Sex, Lust, You-Ian North
- White Gardens-Ian North
- Riker's Island- El Futuro (1985 Peter Hay Records)(progressive new wave/reggae band; The group were derived of actual inmates from Riker's Island-a New York City prison)
- Ghosts- The Comateens (1981 Cachalot Records: "Screamer of the Week" on WLIR Radio, Garden City, NY)
- Late Night City- The Comateens (1981 Cachalot records)
The End
Written by Bernard F. Lopez (2002)
http://www.discomusic.com
Copyright © 2002 by Bernard F. Lopez
All rights reserved
Recommended Listening
- Vanguard Dance Classics Volume 1 CD
- Alsiha - Best of CD
- Dare To Be Disco (includes Frisky, Fonda Rae and Player's Association)
- Interview with DJ John Ceglia
- David Mancuso Interview
- Interview with DJ Ronald "Nicky" Nicholson
- Discuss Disco DJs in the Disco Forum
- Vanguard Records
Please feel free to link to this page by using this URL:
http://www.discomusic.com/people-more/52_0_11_0_C/
YOUR COMMENTS ON Ray (Pinky) Velazquez
Just a note to say hello and I hope everything is going great with you.
Rene Hewitt
Hey whats up? Remember me? I was the bus boy at the Ipanema back in 1977 (tall skinny moreno, ha ha!) stayed with the dance music after all these years and spinned in a few clubs in Jersey. Reattempting to get back into the groove right now. Love to hear from you bro.
Hope all is well. I use to hang out in el barrio with Charlie Cruz. we spent many nights at Cartoon Alley listening to you spin. Those were some good times.
David Lopez
"Just rememember I made you, you are my Frankenstein". I put the bolts in your neck".
Who put Spectrum City in Oliver Stone's film? It's ok my man, you had the vision.
From your only true friend! "Wishing you the best at your quest to be the best". Also, I have an artist for you to meet and work with. Contact me ASAP.
Hope all is well and keep in touch!
DB
IF SO,WHERE CAN I BUY IT. LET ME KNOW
WITHTHE INFO. PEACE.
JAY USE TO HANG WITH PAUL AND SPIN AT THAT AFTER HOURS CLUB RUN BY SUNNY ABBOTT.
JAY MADE A REMIX HE CALLED THE BREAK.
THIS IS 1976
JAY CO SPONCIRED A TRAMMPS CONCERT IN THE BRONX .
THAT WAS THE GREAT BATACUTICA FANTASTICA BRAZILIAN DURMM GANGS DOING EARLY TRIABLE SOUNDS....I FOUND THE LP AT THE COLONNY ON BROADWAY ..AN RCA IMPORT..IT WAS SAMPLED AND REMIXED BY SOME ONE ? INTO THE B2 ASCETATE.
THIS WAS BEFORE JAY WORKED THERE ..
LOTS OF BRIZILAN GIRLS ON SOME WEEK NIGHT.ITS TOO LONG AGO TO REMENBER .
I GRADUATED FROM T C I AND WENT TO SICILON VALLY TO WORK ELECTRONICS.
STILL LOVE THE MUSIC ..CALIFORNIA NIGHT DOESNT EXIST, EVER AT ALL.
Anyone who has info regarding Jay, please let me know.
AT THE VERY GREAT DICSO IPENIMA THEY PALYED A EDIT CALLED B-2 SAMBA
JUST TO LET EVERY ONE KNOW THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR THIS EXCELLENT MIX IS CALLED
**BATACUDICA FANTICTICA VOL 3 1973**RCA ,
LUCIANO PERRON WAS THE MASTER ..
I DONT KNOW MUCH ??
ITS ALMOST IMPOSSIABLE TO FIND THIS OLD IMPORT RECORD ..
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