Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz

Latin Beat Magazine, Sept, 2000 by Rudy Mangual

Approximately twenty six years ago, at the zenith of their musical careers, bandleaders Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz walked away from the kingdom of salsa music into the kingdom of Christianity. This very personal choice by both artists was criticized by many of their fans and peers. The music and style that for almost a decade (1967-1975) bore their names, is today considered as primo classic salsa music by aficionados of all ages worldwide.

On July 22, 1999, the dynamic duo of old school salsa would grace the stage of the Ruben Rodríguez Coliseum in Bayamon, Puerto Rico in a historical and memorable concert that marked the return of Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz to the salsa audiences of the nineties and the new millennium.

On February 15, 1945, Ricardo "Richie" Maldonado Morales was born in Brooklyn, New York, from the union of Don Pacifico Maldonado, a native of Manati, Puerto Rico, and Doña Cristina Morales from Orocovis, Puerto Rico. Richie's father, Don Pacifico, was a member of the famous Conjunto Ladi led by Puerto Rican cuatro master Ladislao Martínez. Recognizing young Ricardo's passion for music at age seven, his father enrolled him in a music school with his brother Raymond, (who in the seventies went on to become Stevie Wonder's musical director). Richie chose to play the piano while brother Ray chose the trumpet. He learned harmony and composition at the Bromley School of Music and attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, the inspiration and actual setting for the box office hit movie "Fame." It was here that Richie met and befriended a young drama student named Nydia Caro, (who years later would become a popular singer and television actress in New York and Puerto Rico). After high school, Richie continued his musical studies at the Juilliard School of Music. The sixties and all of its love-freedom-political-musical-bohemian revolutions inspired him to abandon his music studies at Juilliard and seek the life of a musician.

Roberto Cruz Feliciano (Bobby Cruz) was born on February 2, 1938, in the country town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. As a child Bobby loved to sing, and during his daily farm chores he would sing to the farm animals, thanking them after his performance by quoting the words of one of his idols, Mexican singer Pedro Vargas, "Muy agradecido, muy agradecido." By the 1960s, Bobby and his family relocated to New York City. His love for music and singing continued in the city of skyscrapers. In 1964, Bobby and his neighbor and good friend Richie Ray would form the Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz Orchestra.

The following year, 1965, they would record their first LP, Ricardo Ray Arrives - Comejen under the Fonseca Records label. Immediately, the LP generated a hit of the title track Comejen. Joining Bobby Cruz on vocals on this LP were Chivirico Dávila and Felo Brito. The music of Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz set them apart from most other New York Latin bands (Machito, Tito Rodríguez, Tito Puente, Joe Cuba, Johnny Pacheco, and Charlie and Eddie Palmieri) because of the way they combined Afro-Caribbean rhythms with jazz, rock & roll, and classical music.

During the boogaloo craze of the sixties, they enjoyed the international radio hit Mr. Trumpet Man from their Jala, Jala Boogaloo LP, which honored the talents of the first trumpet of the band, Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, who together with Pedro Rafael Chaparro and Ray Maldonado (Richie's brother), drove the powerful horn section of the orchestra. This LP was the first recording to feature Bobby Cruz as the lead vocalist, singing in both English and Spanish. Another mega-hit was Danzón Boogaloo from the Se Soltó - On The Loose LP. By the end of the sixties, the boogaloo craze slowly faded out and Richie's Jala Jala rhythm replaced it, making the band's music a favorite of both Latinos and non-Latinos.

Historians have been debating the origin of the word "salsa" in Latin music for a long time. One possible version occurred in 1966, during the band's first Latin American tour in Caracas, Venezuela. Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz were interviewed by a radio personality named Phidias Danilo Escalona on his program "La Hora del Sabor y el Bembé." The DJ asked them to define their particular style of music. Richie and Bobby responded that their music was like "ketchup." The DJ, who spoke no English, replied "and what is ketchup?" and they both answered "salsa." The DJ then smiled and announced to his public, "The music of Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz is called salsa." After the interview, he told them that from then on his radio program was going to be called "La Hora del Sabor, la Salsa y el Bembé." Phidias Danilo Escalona edited several music compilations in Venezuela after that, all including the word "salsa" in their titles.

In 1967, Richie and Bobby played in Puerto Rico for the first time at the Miramar Center in San Juan. It was a great dance concert and they both felt a special kinship with the island. By 1970, they decided to relocate to Puerto Rico where they established a successful dance club called Richie Ray's Club in Rio Piedras, until 1974, when they decided to change their lives.