Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz
with
Nestor Louis
Que Vuelva La Musica ****1/2 GREAT (Very Impressive!)
It is 2006 and salsa music, new salsa to be precise, is not doing a thing for me. I find myself raiding record shops (are they still called that?) for classic Fania stuff. I really could care less for most new acts, though I must admit that N'klave and Los Adolecentes are arousing my interest. One could argue that the cause for this is: A) I'm no longer under 30, and buying music takes the back seat to paying a mortgage and supporting a family. B) There very few venues that cater or support salsa, and the few that are still around I can't frequent simply because I'm too tired to leave the house. And C) there's just not enough radio support sustain the genre. Now more than ever before. In New York City, radio has almost lost all interest in salsa. In fact, Ray Barretto just passed (02/17/2006) and not one single commercial FM Spanish radio station spent more than 15 minutes on the man. Sirius Satellite radio gave the man 30 minutes. Not much, but shockingly more than Polito Vega. Where am I going with this rant? Well, what would you do if your phone rings and on the other side of the line is the offer to meet and interview Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz? Exactly.
"The overall state of the music industry is down. Sales are not what they were 5 or 10 years ago... Very few things are. The one country that goes against the trend of low interest, and low sales is Colombia. Salsa is thriving there!"
Produced by Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz and Colombian super star percussionist/producer Diego Gale; "Que Vuelva La Musica" is proof that musical identity is still possible in this digital era of Pro-Tools and makeshift basement studios.
Along with Gale's hardcore masacote driving percussion, the signature trumpets riffs and distinctive piano playing of Richie Ray are present in every track. Bobby's vocal ability and texture, though not as agile and perhaps as bright as it used to be 30 years ago, is still very moving and even a bit more emotionally touching. I guess is only a matter of appreciating it on a different level.This record, their first 100 percent secular record in more than 35 years, contains 14 tracks. All are power packed with high energy arrangements that border on baroque-esque classical music. Included in those tracks is a phenomenal instrumental that prominently displays Richie Ray as the piano virtuoso we know he is.
"Bobby and I traveled to Medellin for two months and we came up with these songs. Our aim was to do all of the ingredients of our original sound with fresh new non-religious songs, to prove that there can be new salsa with the same good ole feeling and spirit. Nothing earth chattering, nothing out of this world. Just Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz straight up.Trained to be a concert pianist, Richie Ray attended The High School of Performing Arts, Brooklyn's Academy of Music, and later Julliard's School of Music; but fell in love with what was then called musica popular - pop music. For Bobby & Richie that was salsa. "At the time, the scene was dominated by Machito, the two Tito's, the Palmieri brothers, and a whole host of musical monsters. We got to thinking - ‘there's no way we're gonna play better mambo than these guys', so we started to mess around with the boogaloo. Everybody from Joe Cuba to El Gran Combo got into the boogaloo. My father would say that Bobby ruined my chances of ever becoming a concert pianist."
Their friendship began with their moms. They used to work in a factory that manufactured life preservers for The National Guard during the WWII era. One day Bobby heard Richie play a song in the school's auditorium. "Bobby tells his mom about this fat kid playing a classical piece, and in return she tells him that the kid playing the song was me. Bobby had a band called Los Aces del Mambo, and every once in a while my brother Ray Maldonado & I would do the transcriptions.
Occasionally we played in Bobby's band. Ray as a trumpeter, and I as a bassist or a pianist. But then there came a point, after I graduated from the university, that we - meaning my brother Ray & I, wanted to do something different. My father, being the frustrated musician, made up a bunch of business cards with the name Richie & Ray y su Combo. It later became Richie Ray y su Combo only because it was more commercial. What can I tell ya', it was the era of I Love Lucy."Their absence from popular salsa cannot be ignored.
Quite a few salsa fans have blocked out the religious Fania era of Richie & Bobby. An era that, surprisingly under the maverick vision of the late Jerry Masucci, spawned about 6 successful albums. "El Espejo", a track included in their last record for Fania, was featured in a Rebecca DeMornay movie called "And God Created Woman". I personally feel that their music and its message was misconstrued and misunderstood. Something that was easy to do in the seventies and eighties."I think there were many misconceptions with regards to our music and what Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz's mission was about. We were not out to "convert" people through the music. What we were trying to do was put out good music - the best music we could - and that music included a message. Did it reach some people? I believe so. Art, whether is music or not, reaches people in ways that are at times unimaginable. Did we try to convert people? No.
The misconception remained with the folks that got offended because they erroneously perceived our music as a tool that brainwashed the so called weak minded into becoming religious. We were never interested in changing people's religion, or making people become more religious. All we wanted to do is to put out a message, no different than the artists who tells a story about love, life, or politics for that matter. Let me ask you, you got most of our non-secular music - Did you join a church?"No. But now, the paragraph begs the question, what is making this duo return to secular music?
"It seems to us that everyone from radio stations to audiences alike only want to hear, as far as salsa is concerned, old music... Old salsa. Many think that's the genuine salsa, and to some degree that's true. If you go to South America all they want to listen to over there is the old stuff. Sonido Bestial, Jala Jala, Pancho Crystal... Those were great records!
But if the music stays there, the music dies there - and it doesn't have to be that way. There can be new salsa! New music that has the same qualities of the old music. The progress and popularity of the music is being hindered by its own inability or unwillingness to allow young talent to enter the arena. The genre is locked in some kind of contradictory confusion that is stuck in classic salsa. Young guys have no other choice but to record reggaeton because it's what radio and labels want."It's easy for cynical folks, including me, to entertain the thought that Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz are returning to salsa to make money. Not that earning a living and making money is a crime against God.
"No doubt the popularity of our old music has swung open the door of opportunity for gigs. In fact two founders of The International Salsa Congress, Luis Delgado & Vicky Hernandez, want to do a movie that deals with that whole scene. The music and the nightclub scene in the early beginnings in New York City during the 50's and 60's to the present - A scene that we were prominently a part off. Today you have events like that worldwide.
Tell you a story about that scene. Our very first gig as Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz was at The Village Gate, opposite to a headlining Tito Puente. I had a close friendship with Tito already, with Charlie Palmieri, with Pacheco, and a bunch of other guys from that era. I worked with many them at other clubs as either Los Aces del Mambo, or Bobby Cruz, or whatever other band.
That night, I didn't tell Tito or anyone about my pairing with Richie... Tito found out about our gig that night when he got to The Gate. I tell you, Tito and his band played very softly, not too aggressive. Certainly not the way you would've expected Tito and his orchestra to perform. As an up and coming young group starting out, he did us the biggest favor ever. He wanted to help us. He could've embarrassed us and played the heck out of his monster material, but he didn't want to make us look bad. We always remember and appreciate Tito Puente for that. He was a mentor and a friend.
But back to the point of money and making money.
Our genuine and more altruistic reason for playing regular salsa is simply put - we haven't played our hits since 1974 to probably 1999. In between that period, we re-recorded our hits with Christian lyrics. We wanted to make our commitment to God front line and center to show people the change. Later on... Much later on, we realized that it just wasn't really the best way to go about it. What can we say? My guess? God wanted it that way for that time. In 1999 we did a re-encuentro/get-back-together type of concert. There we did our music history starting with our very first hit and moving forward chronologically. We would talk after every two or three songs about what was going on with us at that time - including all our Christian stuff. It went over so well with the audience, we were floored! I guess everyone in attendance got what they wanted. They got the hits and, with regards to our transformation, they got their questions answered in a very down to earth way as opposed to a holier-than-thou kind of way."
Both Richie and Bobby launched into the market separate solo projects, and a lot of people thought that they went their separate ways but nothing was further from the truth. "The fact was that both of us were... still are, very busy with our ministry in Tampa, and we just couldn't
dedicate enough time to work on those projects together as Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz." They allocated enough time to work together on this record, and judging by the way it sounds, they haven't missed a step or lost their edge.
Mike Collazo Sr., the legendary percussionist for Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmierie, and whole host of other bands; once told me - the band that he and almost every other percussionist of that era wanted to play in was The Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz Band. Similarly, should there only be room for one CD in your collection, that CD should be Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz's "Que Vuelva La Musica". - THXWAC -
© 2006 Nestor A. Louis
nestor@palosalsero.com
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