⬇️ RAY BAILEY ⬇️
(3CD)
BIOGRAPHY
Ray Bailey was born in Los Angeles California, the son of a postal worker Father and a musician Mother in June of 1956.
One of his earliest memories is of listening to jazz records played by his Father on the family phonograph. His mother Anna noticed and encouraged the toddler's interest in music and at age two Ray was climbing up on the bench of the piano trying to play along with the radio.
Ray's Mother was a professional jazz saxophonist in Los Angeles, playing in a the Be-bop style of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and she taught her son basic chords and music fundementals early on.
Ray initially took piano lessons from Alma Hightower, but moved on to trying the trumpet when he was seven. The band director at the local elementary school was the ground breaking reed player John Carter, and under his tutelage young Bailey learned the music of Charles Mingus, Don Cherry, Stravinsky, and Mozart.
In 1968 Ray's sister, Annette brought home a new record to listen to, "Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits". Suddenly the trumpet seemed less attractive and after pleading with his Father for weeks Ray was presented with a cheap acoustic guitar from a Thrifty Drug store. Ray had found his voice!
In 1968 Ray's sister, Annette brought home a new record to listen to, "Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits". Suddenly the trumpet seemed less attractive and after pleading with his Father for weeks Ray was presented with a cheap acoustic guitar from a Thrifty Drug store. Ray had found his voice!
Growing up in the Watts district of Los Angeles also presented numerous musical influences outside of the sphere of school and lessons. Hunter Hancock was putting on his "Sock Hop" shows with talent competitions where local talent could hope for a break. Rock mixed with Funk, Jazz and Doo-Wop in the streets, clubs, and back alley garages of the city, but underneath it all lay the ultimate firmament, the Blues. And no other place in Los Angeles showcased the Blues more than Babe's and Ricky's Inn , proprietor Laura "Mama" Gross' Central Avenue Blues club.
Ray hung around the place, too young to enter, eventually catching the attention of Laura. It was as a Bluesman that Ray got his first paying gig as a teenager, backing Blues legend Lowell Fulsom on rhythm guitar. For the next 15 years Ray worked as a sideman with Fulsom and other Blues legends such as Smokey Wilson and Phillip Walker, playing every style known from Blues to Jazz to Rock to Country and beyond.
In 1988, while nursing a hand injury, Ray started to sing with the band of the local organist, Jimmy Caravan. After Caravan died in 1990 Ray moved up to be the front man for his own band, securing a key gig on Sunday night at the King King on 6th and Labrea in Hollywood. The word spread about this electric young player, and soon the likes of Larry Davis, Chaka Khan, Bernie Worrell, Joe Houston, Johnny Dyer and others were dropping in on the set.
A young Executive Producer, Crosby Tyler, heard Ray and offered him an opportunity to record. Bailey wrote most of the songs in one week and then gathered Jeff Littleton on bass, Randy Goldberg on drums, and Bill Willis on keyboards and entered the studio. In one marathon nine hour session "Satan's Horn" was recorded. Upon it's 1992 release Living Blues Magazine named Ray the Artist Most Deserving of Wider Recognition and the album itself Best Debut Album.
Ray signed an endorsement deal with Carvin. Zoo Records/BMG picked up the CD for wide release and Ray's star was rising rapidly.
Riding a wave of excitement Ray Bailey broke out and started to play internationally as well as preparing to record more material.
As the nineties wore on Ray continued playing and recording, but the illness of his parents curtailed his travel as the decade came to a close. Then Ray encountered his own personal health problems and the hazards of the musician/nightlife lifestyle contributed to a dramatic personal decline.
By the Fall of 2007 Ray Bailey, the former Blues Wunderkind, a young man who could write his own ticket with an electric guitar, had suffered through a devastating fire and then the subsequent robbery that took all of his Music, recorded and composed, his guitars, his artwork and all of his possessions. Overwhelmed, he sank into drug use and depression.
Finally at rock bottom Ray went back to his musical home; Babe's and Ricky's Inn. Thirty-seven years after they first met, Laura "Mama" Gross was still sitting at the door as though nothing had changed. She waved her wayward musical son inside and fed him a plate of soul food. Laura's Gibson 335 guitar came out of the back room and Ray got up on the little stage where it all began so many years ago and played the Blues.
In 2008 Ray Bailey successfully completed a drug rehab program at the Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles. In June of 2009 he combined with Producer Jonathan Hodges and Bassist/Producer Kevin "Brandino" Brandon to record his first album in a decade, "Resurrection", recorded at Babe's and Ricky's Inn.