Ray Rivera

Emerging from childhood years spent in a Long Island orphanage followed by a Bronx foster home, rhythm guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer Ray Rivera personifies the classic American arc of grit and resolve producing achievement. During adolescence he started guitar instruction and began frequenting Harlem nightspots where jazz filled the air nightly, then entered the recording field in the 1950s.

Hank Jones, Billy Taylor, Cal Tjader, Joe Williams, Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers, Claus Ogerman, Gale Garnett, Donald Byrd, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Enzo Stuarti have all committed his material to disc. Rivera has himself sung, recorded, or shared stages with an array of jazz figures that includes Jones, Ogerman, Dr. Billy Taylor, Milt Hinton, Roy Haynes, Donald Byrd, Art Mooney, Deodato, and Irving Fields. His widely recognized composition “You Been Talkin’ ’Bout Me Baby” was cut by Big Brother & the Holding Company, the San Francisco-based group that backed Janis Joplin, and reached hit status on their 1968 album Cheap Thrills; the Ramsey Lewis Trio likewise scored a million-selling success with the same piece.

Rivera inaugurated his discography in the 1950s on Webb Records before issuing singles on MGM and Decca. More than a dozen albums have appeared under his own name, among them Light ’n’ Easy on Rivelli Records and Ain’t That Good News on Merry-Go-Round Records in the late ’60s. Early in the following decade he released Latin Workout on Mercury, arranged by Claus Ogerman, and The Now Sound of the Ray Rivera Orchestra on MGM Records, plus A Touch of Latin for Hindsight Records. Let Me Hear Some Jazz, issued in 1980 by Insight Records, earned a Grammy nomination. Although certain original pressings have gone out of print, selected tracks have resurfaced on compact disc. Nightwind appeared on Studio West in 1990 featuring Dr. Billy Taylor as guest pianist. Film enthusiasts may note Rivera’s appearance in The Cotton Club, where he performed as guitarist with the Cab Calloway Orchestra.