I’d like to share two more times when Ray Perez versioned himself – not just with alternate takes, but with completely new creations. The first involves the remarkable song “Te Pongo a Valer” from the first Los Kenya LP on sello Velvet (1968).
Los Kenya were one of three bands Ray was directing (and producing and composing and playing piano for) in 1968, along with his Salsa Dura supergroup Los Dementes and the ahead-of-its-time Los Calvos (with Calaven). Los Kenya and Los Calvos were studio bands, excepting one time when Los Kenya played live for “El Show de Medianoche” on Canal 8.
(If you are wondering (as I have) what happened to the footage of all the bands that played live on Venezuelan TV in the ’60s and 70s – all of the reels were destroyed or recycled, as far as I have been able to understand. The same is true, equally crushingly, of Panama btw.)
Los Kenya used trumpets (Luis Arias and Luis Lewis) instead of Los Dementes Trombone-led sound, and featured golden-throated singer Carlin Rodriguez, who also sang with Federico y su Combo. Other musicians included Professor Alberto Naranjo (who went on to become a master of Venezuelan Folkloric percussion) on drum kit, Miguel Silva on bass, Pedro “Guapacha” Garcia on Congas and “Cosa Buena” on Bongo.
Calaven joins Carlin on this song – what a duet!
Here are Ray’s comments on the song’s meaning:
RP: Trata sobre un tipo que pone a su novia a trabajar, de manera que ella adquiera auto-estima, pero ella no reconoce lo que él hizo por ella. Era mi mensaje a los músicos que decían que yo los trataba injustamente, algunos de los músicos de Los Dementes. Así les riposté, como el proverbio judío que dice: “Aquel que vive de la espada…”
RP: The song deals with a guy who sets his girlfriend to working, in a way that she acquires self-confidence, but she doesn’t recognize what he has done for her. It was my message to the musicians that said I treated them unfairly, some of the Los Dementes musicians. This was my reply to them, like the Jewish proverb which says: “Whover lives by the sword…”
Here is another version of the same song (with a new arrangement by Ray) which first came out on Ray’s Pyraphon label, and was later repressed on Discomoda. Not as dynamic as the original but lovely in its own right and quite a difficult 45 to find:
Next I’d like to share two versions of “Sonero Soy” – the first by Ray with Los Dementes, on the epic “Soneros Somos” LP on Velvet (1969), with the great Perucho Torcat on vocals:
Nothing to improve on here, nothing whatsoever to gain re-doing this song… unless you are going to do this to it with Los Kenya – with Carlin Rodriguez on vocals:
Disfruten!