Ray Gomez - a forgotten hero

[Endrik]

Anyone remember this Moroccan/Spanish guitar player?
George Harrison brought him into the big industry and since then he played on many legendary records mainly in New York. But somehow very few talk about him, except for musicians and producers who highly praise him.

The first time I probably heard him was on Lenny White's amazing debut solo album which came out in '75.
Here's one tune from it, where Ray rips some aggressive psychedelic and funky blues rock and jazz fusion licks on a strat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8L7B5WlyIM

[ulijdavid]

I think I remember seeing him do Steve Morse's "Tumeni Notes" perfectly on youtube. He nailed it and didn't even look like he was paying attention to what he was doing.

[wanthairspray]

I only knew about him from knowing about Shawn Lane, way back when. Lane covered Gomez's West Side Boogie on an album and enthused about how totally amazing he was/is.



More cool Gomez:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU-7kW6hHvk&feature=related

Gets crazy near the middle, sound quality sux though. An original bad-ass player.

I think he used to do a lot of Beck covers as part of his set too.

[Rupe]

I only remember him from a Peavey ad in the mid-80's...never listened to the guy.

[fuel0707]

Awesome player! He played on a few discs with Stanley Clarke and did a few pop dates in the early '80's. I think he actually played on a few early songs by the band Scandal. Ray also put out a solo disc called "Volume". He also contributed to a Peter Green tribute disc in the '80's. On top of that, Ray put out an instructional VHS tape in the '80's that was really good. His manic playing on a tune called "Smokin' A Shuffle" from the VHS tape is really cool.

I actually had a funny run-in with Ray. When my wife and I first got internet access in our home back around '96, I goggled Ray's name and found a phone number for him on a site dedicated to him. I told my wife about it and she said there was no way that was his actual phone number. Well, I dialed it and lo and behold, Ray answered and it was his home number! He was very gracious despite having just returned from Europe and we chatted for about 5-10 minutes.

I wish he'd put out another solo disc. He's a very talented man.

[carlygtr56]

Ray is awesome. I sold him an SLO-100 back in '92. Check my YouTube link. I have alot of Ray live posted

[Mr Metal]

Yeah....Ray's been around since the 70's......He also played on two or three of Patrick Moraz's solo albums in mid to late 70's (Patrick joined Yes for a couple of years when Rich Wakeman went solo). He does blues and fusion pretty well...........