eMusic

Start Your Trial

Ray Vega

Ray Vega

Rate it!

Avg: 5.0 (1 rating)

  • Years Active: 1990s, 2000s

Biography

At the age of 12, when Ray Vega saw Machito & His Orchestra play in Central Park, the South Bronx native decided he was destined to play the saxophone. Enrolled in his school's music program, Vega received the bad news that the school was out of saxophones, so he reluctantly switched to trumpet. A year later he was being taught by Down Beat poll winner Jerry Gonzales, an experience that changed Vega's opinion of the instrument forever. Studying the trumpet throughout his high-school years gave Vega the chops to land gigs in the bands backing Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaria, Paul Simon, and Tito Puente. On his own he refined his trumpet, composition, and percussion skills and made his solo debut in 1996 with his self-titled album for the Concord label. He recorded Boperation for the label in 1999 but switched to Palmetto for his 2002 release, Pa'Lante. After serving a year as artist-in-residence for the Cityfolk program in Dayton, OH, Vega released his second Palmetto album, Squeeze Squeeze, in 2004. Vega also serves as a member of the Bronx Council of the Arts.
— David Jeffries , All Music Guide

Playlists If you like Ray Vega, check out these member playlists

Explore music recommended by Ray Vega fans

“ The indie iTunes — Hardcore music fans are migrating to eMusic, the iTunes Music Store's cheaper, cooler cousin.”


Rolling Stone
Start Your Trial

Recently Viewed

Back
Forward

© 1998-2009 eMusic.com Inc. eMusic and the eMusic logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks in the USA or other countries. All rights reserved.

All Music Guide © 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC

Facebook®, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia® are registered trademarks of their respective owners, Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. and Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Neither Facebook Inc., Google, Inc., Yahoo! Inc. nor Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. are partners or sponsors of eMusic. eMusic uses the Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia API but is not endorsed or certified by Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. eMusic does not pre-screen, monitor, endorse nor assume any liability for websites, contents, products, services or claims made by Facebook, YouTube, Flickr™ and Wikipedia®.

Legal or copyright question regarding Facebook, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia content on eMusic? Please email us.