Rey Davila - Ya Era Tiempo/On His Own

Label - ORC Year 1970

Rey Davila was born May 10, 1941 in Guayama, Puerto Rico. It is a city located in the south of Puerto Rico, about 30 minutes East of Ponce.

Q/"So Mr Rey Davila tell me firstly are you any relation to Mr Chivirico Davila ?"

"Hehehe, well Dustin not that I know of, however, Puerto Rico is a small Island, and since Chivirico is from Ponce, so close to Guayama,, then it is possible that we are distant relations".

THE STORY OF REY DAVILA IN HIS WORDS:

The Profiles

It all started for me back in the 60's when I was singing with an R&B group called "The Profiles". We had a good sound, no wait, we had a great sound! We got plenty of exposure, which led to a lot of gigs. I remember once we played with all the giant heavyweights of latin music ie: Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri and many more. I remember that there were 17 different acts that night and "The Profiles were the only R&B act. Our ace side was titled "Right By Her Side" author being Rey Davila. We recorded this tune in 1965, shortly after having been auditioned at Carnegie Hall for Gait Records of Brooklyn. The President of Gait records is Al Gaitwood from the vocal group "The Cufflinks", who recorded an old Doowop hit entitled "Guided Missiles" in the fifties. The members of The Profiles are Victor Martinez, Manny Sanchez, Johnny Watson, and yours truly. "Wow I think back to those days and remember that I had a four octave vocal register".

The Profiles - Right By Her Side:

The Lat-teens

I was asked to sing with the LAT-TEENS on their first production recorded on the Cotique label. I was never actually credited as being a part of the band; however I sang every song on the LP except for maybe two. All of the tunes that I sang on the LP were totally improvised except for two which I wrote and sang. The LAT-TEENS were a group of talented young kids that really played hard and had a fresh sound...

Johnny Colon

One day a well known promoter "Angel Santiago" who was managing at the time a few Latin bands such as "King Nando", approached me shortly after the disbanding of "The Profiles". Angel asked me if I would be interested in singing with a Latin band. Angel continued to tell me that the two bands that were seeking a vocalist were none other than "Johnny Colon", & "Ray Barretto". (WOW TALK ABOUT HEAVY WEIGHTS!) To make a long story short I began singing coro with "Johnny Colon's band and occasionally was given a chance to sing lead. I remember doing a gig in Philadelphia once, where I sang lead. I had to adlib to the killer boogaloo hit "Boogaloo Blues" for 45 minutes... The audience went crazy with my performance and literally didn't want me to stop. After that I was not allowed to sing lead anymore for Johny Colon’s band...hmm not sure why exaclty...

The Rey Davila Latin Band

My mission was to create my own "Latin Band". So in 1969, I left Johnny Colon to form that band. Two musicians from the Johnny Colon band left Johnny to play in my band. They were, Pianist "Robin Holske, and Bongocero "Frankie Rosario". The next step was finding a musical arranger to write my charts. Frankie Rosario said “I know the man you need". Frankie introduced me to "John Ruiz", who everyone knew as "George" for some reason. I remember telling John/George that his first challenge was to arrange a mambo version of the all time classic “Fly me to the moon". "WHHAAAAAAAT"! George replied, NO WAY! YOU CAN”T DO THAT!” “You do this successfully, and you’re my arranger”, I said. George did a great job on "FLY ME TO THE MOON".

I was now on the right track, and continued in search of the other members of the band (listed below). As soon as my arranger had enough charts ready, we started rehearsing. The goal was to prepare ourselves to go into a studio and record an LP. Before a band can hope to get any decent gigs it must have at least one track getting airplay.

Lead Vocals & Coro : Rey Davila (Leader)

Piano: Robin Holske

Bass: Arty Fiore

Timbales: Moises (Jr) Cuevas

Conga & Coro: Pete Iglesias

Bongos & Cowbell: Frank Rosario

Trompet (Solos): Larry Spencer

Trompet: Tony Cofresi

Tenor Sax: Marcus Cuevas

Flute: Willie Hernandez

Coro: Vic Velez, Johnny Velez, Orlando Marin, Pete Iglesias & Rey Davila.

La Mancha Latin Club:

While still in the rehearsal stage, a friend contacted me and asked if we would be interested in playing at "LA MANCHA". La Mancha was trying to become one of the hottest clubs in town, but they were having difficulty filling the premises. My friend, who was a promoter for the club knew that between my two brothers and me, we could fill the place. We were handsome, young cats, who knew a lot of fine ladies, which in turn would bring in the guys. When we premiered at "LA MANCHA", we had the place packed from wall to wall. We were then contracted as the house band and were there for three consecutive months.

Signing to the ORC label:

"La Mancha" is where, you can say, we built our following. We were scouted by ORC founder/director "Raul Bernard". We were approached by Raul, who at the time owner of a popular music store on 96th street and Broadway. Raul had also started his own record label titled ORC. He was signing various bands for the label including us. Our recording took place in 1970 in the yet unfinished studios of RCA. Our studio engineer was J. Woram, who, I must say, did an excellent job.

The tracklisting:

:

Our repertoire consisted of mostly covers, however I did also have original compositions such as "Falling Star"& "Cristobal Colon" to name just two.

Guajira Davila:

Sabroso:

Cover from the great "Randy Carlos". http://www.salsamixes.com/randycarlos45.php

Robin's Montuno:

To tell you the truth this track was a straight up jam session. Robin Holske who is a brilliant pianist, had never played Latin music before. One night he stumbled accross a very popular radio show hosted by the legendary Symphony Sid, and was blown away at what he heard. Robin found himself playing piano for the "Johnny Colon" band soon thereafter. Robin used to do a montuno that he had in his head as a jam session at our live gigs. When we finished the album, the engineer J. Woram informed us that we still had tape and time left. "Woram", asked if we had any more material. I said "Hey Robin" do that montuno thing you have... He started to hit those powerful keys, playing that contagious montuno riff. I would then go to the other musicians, one by one, singing in to their ears what they should play; directing this crazy yet fabulous latin jazz descarga. We finished the track and after the final editing were so happy with it that we decided to put it on the album. Robin's Montuno was however longer than expected and so we to cut two tracks from the LP. One was titled "La Ardilla", & the other "Coche Viejo". (See below for more info on these two unreleased tracks.)

Cristobal Colon:

I got the inspiration for "Cristobal Colon" one night while playing solitaire about three in the morning. I wrote the lyrics in a very short time and that following afternoon, I had it arranged

Louie Louie: Is a cover from a group called "The Kingsmen". The difference being that I wrote my own lyrics.

Fly Me To The Moon: Arrangement written by John Ruiz & Rey Davila.

Arriba Chico: Cover from a Pete Terrace LP titled "El Nuevo" on the Scepter label.

Latin Blues: Written by "Mr. Frankie Nieves" and arranged by John Ruiz.

Frankie also recorded a great album titled “The Terrible Frankie Nieves" on the Cotique label.

BONUS UNRELASED TRACKS:

Regarding the bonus tracks that were never released on the ‘Ya Era Tiempo” LP. One of the tracks is titled "La Ardilla" which was written by Rey Davila.

LA ARDILLA SAMPLE

This song is about a squirell who was overwhelmed with the amazing sound, when he heard the Rey Davila band rehearsing in Central Park. Check out a sample of the track below.

COCHE VIEJO SAMPLE

The other unreleased track was entitled "Mi Coche Viejo" written by Frankie Nieves. It is about a guy who does'nt want to part with his old trusty car that he is so fond of. There is a killer bongo solo on this track by "Frankie Rosario". Enjoy the samples.

*NB* Both tracks are currently exclusive and in the process of being re-mastered & will be released in co-ordination with DJ DUSTE'S QUE VIVA LA SALSA DURA VOLUME 2. Keep your ears peeled for more on this release, and many more releases by joining my mailing list. info@salsamixes.com

A PERSONAL NOTE TO MR REY DAVILA:

It is with great pleasure that I have had this opportunity to get in touch with you Rey. A Special thanks to the daughter of Robin Holske (Rebecca) who got in touch with me via e-mail. We, the lovers of your music are all so glad that you endeavored to put together such a fine masterpiece production. We will always keep you as one of our favorites as collectors, DJs, dancers, and general lovers of Latin music. I know that you may not still have your four octave vocal range; however, it was a great honor to be able to chat with you and have you now as a friend. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART MR REY DAVILA!

Your friend

Dustin Anthony / Dj Duste

Article written by Dustin Anthony Hogg / Facts provided by Rey Davila. 6th July 2009

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