Loleatta Holloway, known for her work on the Salsoul label and producer Vince Montana Jr. speaks with DiscoMusic.com
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 |
"Fonda Raes "Over Like A Fat Rat" and Carol Williams "Cant Get Away From Your Love" theres always room for the piano." |
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 |
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." |
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."
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. |
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| Vanguard Records 12 inch jacket from the Disco era. |
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. |
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.
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. |
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 |
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. |
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
The End
Written by Bernard F. Lopez (2002)
http://www.discomusic.com
Copyright © 2002 by Bernard F. Lopez
All rights reserved
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