Ray Obiedo (born January 27, 1952, in

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.

) is an American contemporary jazz guitarist. Obiedo grew up in

, and began playing guitar at age 16. Initially he played both

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and R&B. Ray has appeared on records by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

George Duke George Martin Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as ...

Bob Mintzer Robert Alan Mintzer (born January 27, 1953) is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. Early life Mintzer was born and raised in a Jewish family in New Rochelle, New York, on January 27, 1953. He attended the Inte ...

Grover Washington Jr Grover Washington Jr. (December 12, 1943 – December 17, 1999) was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award winner. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders and le ...

Lou Rawls Louis Allen Rawls (December 1, 1933 – January 6, 2006) was an American baritone singer. He released 61 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably the song " You'll Never Find Another Love like Min ...

The Whispers The Whispers are an American vocal group from Los Angeles, California. Scoring hit records since the late 1960s, they are best known for their two number-one R&B singles, " And the Beat Goes On" in 1979 and " Rock Steady" in 1987. The Whispers ...

Johnny "Hammond" Smith John Robert "Johnny Hammond" Smith (December 16, 1933 – June 4, 1997) was an American soul jazz and hard bop organist. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he was a renowned player of the Hammond B-3 organ so earning "Hammond" as a nickname, wh ...

Pete Escovedo Peter Michael Escovedo Jr. (born July 13, 1935 in Pittsburg, California) is an American percussionist. Career With his two brothers, he formed the Escovedo Bros Latin Jazz Sextet, before Carlos Santana hired Pete and Coke Escovedo for his grou ...

, Sheila E. and

Julian Priester Julian Priester (born June 29, 1935) is an American jazz trombonist and occasional euphoniumist. He is sometimes credited "Julian Priester Pepo Mtoto". He has played with Sun Ra, Max Roach, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, and Herbie Hancock. Biog ...

. He was the leader of the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

group

Kick A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of ...

and the rock band Rhythmus 21. Ray Obiedoat

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

In 1989 he signed with

Windham Hill Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

Jazz Records, with whom he released five albums in eight years. Obiedo made his solo debut with 1989's Perfect Crime, followed two years later by Iguana; with 1993's Sticks and Stones, he reached the Top Ten on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz charts. After 1995's African-influenced Zulaya, he resurfaced two years later with Sweet Summer Days featuring vocalist Peabo Bryson. Ray's most recent releases are under his own Rhythmus Records label, 2015's There Goes That, The Latin Jazz Project Vol 1 in 2017, Carousel (2020), The Latin Jazz Project Vol 2 in 2022 and the 2024 release of "Twist"

Discography

As leader

* ''Perfect Crime'' (

, 1989) * ''Iguana'' (Windham Hill, 1991) U.S. Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 10

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Allmusic.com * ''Sticks & Stones'' (Windham Hill, 1993) U.S. Contemporary Jazz No. 7 * ''Zulaya'' (Windham Hill, 1995) U.S. Contemporary Jazz No. 22 * ''Sweet Summer Days'' (Windham Hill, 1997) * ''Modern World'' ( Domo, 1999) * ''There Goes That'' (Rhythmus, 2014) * ''Latin Jazz Project, Vol. 1'' (Rhythmus, 2016) * ''Carousel'' (Rhythmus, 2019) * ''Latin Jazz Project, Vol. 2'' (Rhythmus, 2021) * ''Twist'' (Rhythmus, 2024) With Bill Summers & Summers Heat * ''Cayenne'' (

Prestige Prestige may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films *Prestige (film), ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett: woman travels to French Indochina to meet up with husband *The Prestige (film), ''The Prestige'' (fi ...

, 1977) * ''Feel the Heat'' (Prestige, 1977) * ''On Sunshine'' (Prestige, 1978) * ''Straight to the Bank'' (Prestige, 1978) * ''Call It What You Want'' ( MCA, 1981) * ''Jam the Box'' (MCA, 1981) * ''Seventeen'' (MCA, 1982) With

* ''Solo Two'' (Fantasy, 1977) * ''Happy Together'' (Fantasy, 1978) * ''The Island'' (Esgo, 1982) * ''Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories'' (Esgo, 1985) * ''Flying South'' (

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...

, 1995) * ''E Street'' (Concord, 1997) * ''E Music'' (Concord Picante, 2000) * ''Live at Stern Grove'' (Concord, 2012) * ''Back to the Bay'' (Esco 2018) * ''Anthology'' (Esco 2023) With

* ''

Feets, Don't Fail Me Now ''Feets, Don't Fail Me Now'' is the twenty-second album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock. The record was released in February 1979 by Columbia Records. Overview This was the first of Hancock's albums to discard jazz completely in favor of a more ...

'' (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, 1979) * '' Directstep'' (CBS Sony, 1979) * ''Butterfly'' with Kimiko Kasai & Herbie Hancock (CBS Sony, 1979) * ''Tokyo Sunlight'' (Megadisc, 2002) With Sheila E. * ''Sex Cymbal'' (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, 1991) * ''Writes of Passage'' (Concord, 2000) * ''Heaven'' (Concord, 2001)

As sideman

* Johnny "Hammond" Smith ''Forever Taurus'' (

Milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

) 1976 * Bobbi Humphrey ''Tailor Made'' (Epic) 1977 * Julian Priester ''Polarization'' (

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

) 1977 (as composer/sideman) * Eddie Henderson '' Mahal'' (Capitol) 1978 * Paul Jackson ''Black Octopus'' (Toshiba-EMI) 1978 * George Duke ''Master of the Game'' (Epic) 1979 * Michael Paulo ''Tats in the Rainbow'' (Trio-Kenwood) 1979 * Mark Soskin ''Rhythm Vision'' (Prestige) 1980 * The Waters ''Watercolors'' (Arista) 1980 * Rodney Franklin ''Endless Flight'' (CBS) 1981 *

''Love Is Where You Find It'' (Solar) 1981 * Carrie Lucas ''Still in Love'' (Solar) 1982 (as co-producer/composer/sideman) *

Holly Near Holly Near (born June 6, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist. Family Holly Near was born in Ukiah, California, United States, and was raised on a ranch in Potter Valley, California. She has two sisters, Ti ...

''Speed of Light'' (Redwood) 1982 * Cornelius Bumpus ''Beacon'' (Broadbeach) 1983 * The Whispers ''Love for Love'' (Solar) 1983 (as co-producer/composer/sideman) *

Linda Tillery Linda "Tui" Tillery (born September 2, 1948) is an American singer, percussionist, producer, songwriter, and music arranger. She began her professional singing career at age 19 with the Bay Area rock band The Loading Zone. She is recognized as ...

''Secrets'' (Redwood) 1985 (as producer/composer/sideman) * R.O.A.R. ''R.O.A.R.'' (CBS) 1985 * L.J. Reynolds ''Tell Me You Will'' (Fantasy) 1987 *

Brenda Russell Brenda Russell (née Gordon; born April 8, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist. Russell has a diverse musical range which encompasses Rhythm and blues, R&B, pop music, pop, soul music, soul, dance music, dance, and ...

''Kiss Me With the Wind'' (A&M) 1990 *

''It's Supposed to Be Fun'' (Blue Note) 1990 * Rad ''Venus Drops'' (Soulciety) 1993 * Claudia Villela ''Asa Verde'' (Taina) 1994 * Marc Russo ''The Window'' (JVC) 1994 * Rad ''Gotta Be'' (Soulciety) 1994 * David Garibaldi ''The Funky Beat (1 & 2)'' (

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

) 1996 (as composer & sideman) *

Grover Washington, Jr. Grover Washington Jr. (December 12, 1943 – December 17, 1999) was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist and Grammy Award winner. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders and le ...

''Soulful Strut'' (Columbia) 1996 * David K Mathews ''Down With It'' 1998 (as producer/engineer/sideman) * The Whispers ''Love for Love'' (Solar) 1998 (as co-producer/composer/sideman) * Braxton Brothers ''Now & Forever'' (Windham Hill) 1999 * Delfonics ''Forever New'' (Volt) 1999 * Marion Meadows ''Next to You'' (Heads Up) 2000 (as co-producer/composer/sideman) * Tom Grant ''Tune It In'' (Windham Hill) 2000 (as producer/engineer/sideman) * Zigaboo Modeliste ''Zigaboo'' (JZM) 2000 *

Freda Payne Freda Charcilia Payne (born September 19, 1942Some sources give a birth year of 1945, but this appears to be an error as all sources agree that she is older than her sister Scherrie, born 1944.) is an American singer and actress. Payne is best ...

''Come See About Me'' (Volt) 2001 * Marion Meadows ''In Deep'' ( Heads Up) 2002 * Rad Live ''Live in Paris'' (7 Bridges) 2003 * Intuit ''Intuit'' (Compost) 2004 (as co-producer/engineer/sideman) * Intuit ''Planet Birth'' (Compost) 2004 (as co-producer/engineer/sideman) * Joyce Cooling ''This Girl's Got to Play'' (

Narada Narada (, ), or Narada Muni, is a sage-divinity, famous in Hinduism, Hindu traditions as a travelling musician and storyteller, who carries news and enlightening wisdom. He is one of the Manasputra, mind-created children of Brahma, the creator ...

) 2004 (as engineer/sideman) * Joyce Cooling ''Revolving Door'' (Narada) 2006 (as engineer/sideman) * Doc Kupka ''Doc Goes Hollywood'' (Strokeland) 2008 * Rad ''Live in Japan'' (7 Bridges) 2008 * Intuit ''Voyage No. 2'' (In + Out) 2011 * Amikaeyla ''Being in Love'' (Rootsjazz) 2012 (as co-producer /engineer/sideman) * George Duke ''Complete 1970's Epic Albums'' (Epic) 2012 * Pacific Mambo Orchestra ''Pacific Mambo Orchestra'' (PMO) 2012 * Chloé Jean ''Fairy Tale Fail'' (Rhythmus Records 2023)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Obiedo, Ray 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists Windham Hill Records artists Smooth jazz guitarists Guitarists from California Living people 1952 births Jazz musicians from California Domo Records artists John F. Kennedy High School (Richmond, California) alumni