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Ray Vazquez and his Be-Boppers


Jaffa

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While gathering some information on the fascinating sessions issued on Maury Rappoport's Rex-Hollywood label (not Roger Kay's New York "Rex" label), I stumbled over a really puzzling entry in Jan Evensmo "History of the Tenor Sax, 1945-49":

4 tracks by Ray Vazquez and his Be-Boppers on Rex 25099 (Snake Ron / Clutching Hand) and Rex 26000 (Jinnies Packard / Home Run) - allegedly with Lucky Thompson (or, unlikely, Walter Benton) on ts.

Has anyone ever heard these ?

Were they ever re-issued on LP / CD ?

Any info sheding light on this enigmatic date is very welcome !

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I have a copy of Rex Hollywood 25099.

His name is spelled Vasquez and the song titles are Snake Den / Clutching Hand.

Haven't listened in years but seem to recall Anthony Ortega as the saxophonist.

Thanks, Chuck, for the quick reply ! If you ever play it again, I wonder how BIG the band approximately is. Could there be any link to Roy Porter's session for Rex since both Dolphy and Ortega had the same teachers ? If it's Ortega this would be (possibly) his first records ! Makes it even more fascinating !

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bunch of info from here...

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb8779...=&brand=oac

As a matter of fact, my cousin Ray Vasquez was playing trombone at the time, and he's the one who also had a big influence on me starting on the saxophone. He told me to take lessons from Lloyd Reese. I'm sure you've heard of him.

Mory Rappaport recorded one record or maybe more than one record for Teddy Edwards on the Rex [Records] label, "Out of Nowhere" and— What was the name of the other one? Was it "Steady with Teddy?" No, "Steady with Teddy" was on Dial. I can't remember the name of the tune. But if you ever interview him he'll remember. I remember now; it was called "Rexology."

___________________

Incidentally, my cousin Ray Vasquez had got us on a recording session with the same label. It was on the Rex label. This was in about 1947.

Isoardi

Your group, the Frantic Five?

Ortega

The Frantic Five. We recorded on the Rex label.

Isoardi

That must have been a thrill.

Ortega

Yeah, man. I was only about sixteen years old. I wrote this tune based on the "East of the Sun [and West of the Moon]." I called it "The Clutching Hand." The reason I called it "The Clutching Hand" is because many years before I even played the saxophone I used to go to these serials. You know, they used to have serials every week in the movies like "The Shadow" or all these different— Like "Batman." And in this one incident there was a real bad guy, and he was the Clutching Hand. [laughter] He was the Clutching Hand. If he got ahold of you, man, you'd had it. Anyway, I named this tune "The Clutching Hand." It was based on "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." I really liked that tune ever since I was a kid when I first heard Tommy Dorsey play it and Frank Sinatra sing it, which was one of my early influences, in a sense, hearing Frank Sinatra do all these early things with Tommy Dorsey. I was very impressed with his singing.

Anyway, Ray Vasquez got us the date for Rex label. The guy's name was Mory Rappaport who owned the Rex label.

[... info on the label, btw]

We thought it was great to do a recording. So we did that one, "The Clutching Hand." On the other side was Walter Benton's tune called "Home Run." It was a blues in F. At that time Walter Benton had written an introduction like a whole tone scale. The introduction was— [sings part of introduction] And his cousin Jimmy O'Brien would play like an augmented eleventh chord on the piano. [sings] But, you know, we were pretty cool for our age. We were only teenagers, you know. But anyway, we did the record, which I still think I have a copy of at home. So that was my very first recording, and it was nonunion and the whole bit. I'd never done anything like that.

[...]

Isoardi

Did you ever have a chance to hear it on the radio? Ever get any airplay?

Ortega

Possibly. Possibly. They may have played it a little on the radio once or something. I don't know. But it was called Ray Vasquez and his Beboppers, and Ray wasn't even on it. He didn't play nothing. But he got the session. You know, he got the recording session. And we didn't get paid or anything; we just did it. It was called Ray Vasquez and his Beboppers. It didn't have any of the guys' names or anything. That's all it said, "Ray Vasquez and his Beboppers."

and also

Anyway, my house was kind of like the popular place for the guys to come by, because we had a great big front room. So Chuy and Walter and all the guys used to come by. For a while we had a little group called the Frantic Five: Walter Benton; the kid next door, Reyes Gaglio; Chuy Ruiz on drums; Walter's cousin Jimmy O'Brien on piano; and myself on alto. We used to call it the Frantic Five. Sometimes we used to go down to the Streets of Paris, a nightclub down there in Hollywood. The Gene Krupa trio used to play there, and some other guys used to sit in around there or jam. Once in a while we would go down there.
Edited by Niko
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Thanks, Niko ! Great source I wasn't aware of at all. Things get clearer - and, in addition, it confirms and adds to the liner-notes on the Onyx-LP about the kind of crook that Maury Rappoport must have been - albeit a crook also running that fascinating fly-by-night Rex-Hollywood label besides his other shadier jobs ...

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Thanks, Niko ! Great source I wasn't aware of at all. Things get clearer - and, in addition, it confirms and adds to the liner-notes on the Onyx-LP about the kind of crook that Maury Rappoport must have been - albeit a crook also running that fascinating fly-by-night Rex-Hollywood label besides his other shadier jobs ...

besides the ortega, the first 11 of these are available online:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4...al;group=Items;

and here are another four

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=isoardi

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Were they ever re-issued on LP / CD ?

That's something I'd really like to know too.

BTW,@Niko:

Thanks for those links! I am currently reading the "Central Avenue Sounds" (though I am kind of stuck right now, interviewing all THREE of the Woodman brothers - who more or less have the same kind of things to say about Central Avanue - tends to get very repetitive and not very stimuling) and these additional transcription no doubt will add a lot to the story!

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BTW,@Niko:

Thanks for those links! I am currently reading the "Central Avenue Sounds" (though I am kind of stuck right now, interviewing all THREE of the Woodman brothers - who more or less have the same kind of things to say about Central Avanue - tends to get very repetitive and not very stimuling) and these additional transcription no doubt will add a lot to the story!

what i wrote a bunch of times before... while the world sure is a significantly better place due to the research of steven isoardi, i really wish he was a better storyteller... somehow the interview transcriptions are much more lively than the finished books imho... wish the other transcriptions were online as well...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's a link to an interview Isoardi did with Leroy Hurte. It's 179 pages or thereabouts, but Hurte was such an interesting man.

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb4m3n...=&brand=oac

MG

welcome back! in my post 8 are links to (i believe) all 15 interviews that are available online... haven't read the hurte yet but will do so soon... (the gerry wiggins is great)

Edited by Niko
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