Diggin' in the crates...
Rediscovering Ray Camacho & The Teardrops
words: Pete Isaac

About 8 years ago on a record buying trip to New York, my fellow digger and Latin music king DJ Lubi pulled out a Ray Camacho LP called 'Salsa Chicana'; on it was the track 'Let's Boogie'. This crazy Latin funk bomb blew my mind. I secured my own copy a few years later and it's since become a bit of an anthem at Jelly Jazz, and still illicits the 'what the hell is this?' from stunned DJs and dancers alike. My reasoning suggested that with music this good, there surely must be more...

Ray Camacho, a Mexican American was born in El Paso, Texas in 1944 but moved up to Fresno when he was a mere lad. Whilst at college studying Electronics, he used his skills as a trumpet player to pay his way. The Teardrops were formed and a bunch of young Chicano musicians started on a path that leads right up to the present day. But it was in 1969 that the young Camacho had his first big break. An officer of the American Army saw them playing at a show in Los Angeles and asked if they wanted to do a USO tour of Vietnam. As he was still studying and married with a young son he hadn't been drafted to serve, but he wanted to do his bit for the troops. He set off on the first of three tours to Vietnam and subsequently 5 others to the Orient, Europe and the Caribbean, covering around 30 countries. Between '69 and '79 he estimates that he played to over 2,000,000 people on these tours!

It was a dangerous schedule - in Vietnam one concert hall was destroyed by a rocket some 30 minutes after the show had finished and a helicopter they were on was hit, luckily it landed ok. He says 'Brother, at that point we learned how to pray really fast'. And it wasn't just USO tours that were untypical of a bands progress, they also played at 2 leper colonies, 22 prisons and some 400 weddings and quinceaneras (a girl's 15th birthday!). Relentless touring was a necessity that many US bands would undertake during the 50s, 60s and 70s. Ray Camacho was no exception and this honed the bands skills as a unit and enabled them to experiment with many styles. Producing tight, accomplished music and forsaking 'normal' living for a life on the road, and a the ability to dedicate oneself to music.

Up in California, Mexican musicians were called Chicanos. Chicano music is primarily Latin music fused with traditional American folk, jazz, R&B and rock. Ray's band were firmly rooted in these traditions and never let them go throughout their career. He recorded a staggering 56 LPs and 75 singles for various labels including Discos Falcon, California, Luna, C.A.L and CBS. In these recordings he covered many styles of music. The bulk are pure rancheras and cumbias, expertly played, but the real treats are when the band venture into crossover styles and really let fly. Their time on the California label seems to be the period where they experimented with different sounds: salsa, Latin rock, Latin soul, some really HEAVY Cumbia and so on. Each LP would contain a few tracks which appeared at odds with the more traditional rancheras. On 'Para Los Chicanos' the track 'It's Time For Me To Love You' is in the tradition of bands like WAR, heavy Latin rock crammed full of breaks and powerful horns. On 'Salsa Chicana', apart from 'Let's Boogie', there is also 'Si Si Peude' (recently included on the Ubiquity LP 'Bay Area Funk'). This outstanding bass heavy slice of Latin Funk sees the band play with such a gritty rawness you wonder if it's the same band. In Cumbia too, Ray Camacho can challenge anyone's crown with cuts like the wonderfully insane 'Cumbia Chevere', and from the LP 'IX', 'Cumbia Rica' and 'Cumbia Para Ustedes'. It is music like this that has woken up many DJs here in the UK to the sound of the Teardrops.

With such an eclectic musical legacy, I tracked Ray down in California to find out more about his life..

Before you embarked on the USO tours, how long had you been playing
and what sort of success were you having?

Before we started playing the USO tours we were doing pretty good because the band was pretty good, but to play the USO Shows put us on the map. The publicity USO put out was really good. We were playing a Jewish wedding in Beverly Hills and the man in charge of the USO liked the band and that was the start of 8 USO tours.

Did you ever have to stop midway at a show in Vietnam to take cover!?

We were doing a show in a firebase named Maryann (Vietnam) for about 300 soldiers when some rockets were in-coming, the sirens went on for us to take cover, and believe me we did and everyone started running to the bunkers made of sandbags. No one got hurt, just scared. We had a girl singer who was singing a song and she just threw her microphone on the ground and ran for cover. I took my Trumpet with me to the bunker. We got hit pretty good. The rockets kept coming for about 20 minutes, but it seemed like 20 hours.

We did another show in an airbase, Bien-Hoa, Vietnam and we finished around 9 pm and there was some heavy fighting going on close to the base so they decided to send us back to Saigon in a helicopter. When we got into the air they started shooting at us ( the chopper ) and we were taking hits and we were horrified. We made it safely into Saigon with several bullet holes in the chopper. It was extremely scary. We also played on several aircraft-carriers and landed on them, too! That too is scary.

I expect the troops loved your sound, it's good time, feel good music.
What kind of atmospheres did the gigs produce?

The troops liked our music because we were versatile. The songs we played sounded like the records, and we played music the soldiers had heard on the radio at home whether English or Spanish. We always took 2 attractive senoritas that sung and danced in short skirts, that always helped. There were some sad songs that made some guys cry thinking of home. I used to tell the soldiers, to me the only color I saw was green which was the color of their uniforms. The band was quite good, too!

You spent a lot of time on tour, away from home and away from your more traditional Chicano roots. Also like you said in your previous answer you were playing to culturally diverse groups on your USO tours. Apart from the short skirted senioritas (always a timeless crowd pleaser!!) it must have been hard to keep all of your crowd happy at times. Did that lead you to naturally diversify your material when you were playing on these tours? Was that reflected in the music included on the LPs?

We were away from home most of the time, about 4 days a week. It wasn't easy on our families, but we were blessed with great wives who did a nice job of taking care of our children. Our parents helped a lot because we were doing very well. I always used to say , an expert is a guy from 50 miles out. We had to travel to different cities all the time. We were at the right place at the right time to be in such demand to be able to play 200 different cities throughout the United States. Remember, the band was very good. We had several educated musicians, with 2 guys having masters degrees in music.

How did the USO tours affect your career back in the states?

The USO Shows opened a lot of doors for us at home. I credit the USO Shows for us being picked to play the inauguration in 1989 for president Bush, sr. in Washinton, DC.

Can you tell me more about the concerts at the leper colonies, that must have been strange?

We were one of 2 bands that played for the Lepers. Most bands were not interested in playing for those poor people. We donated our time to play for the Lepers. We played a Leper Colony in Korea and the people did not understand a thing we said, but they really appreciated the band. The Leper Colony we played in Panama was completely different. They cried a lot because we played Mexican standards that they remembered and they truly appreciated the band. We were treated like super stars. We were the only show in town.

What was your first record?

Our first record was an LP on Cima Records from San Jose, Ca. The quality was poor and the song selection was bad. The picture was also poor quality.

When did you start recording with California Records?

We started recording on California Records after that and we improved a lot. We had a bigger budget to work with in the recording studio. We also recorded on CBS Records and Sony Records. Our best results were with a small label named Radio Hits from LA, Ca. We were the guys' top group and he really promoted us heavy in Los Angeles. From there, the other radio stations in the country picked up the hits. He died and so our promotion died with him. We did well with our own California Artists which I later sold to Luna Records.

Commercially the traditional music you play is obviously what sold and made you famous, but on tracks like 'Let's Boogie' and 'Cumbia Chevere', there's a power and noticeable energy. Were the band just experimenting or doing what you really wanted to play?

The Tejano Music isn't what helped us. It was our tropical music because it was different. As you have noticed, our instrumental stuff with high energy, was what we really wanted to play. Our stuff which sold, was our high energy music.

What is your personal favourite Ray Camacho recording?

My personal favorite recording is the Chevere LP. It Had 6 hits in it.

West coast Latin was always overshadowed by what was happening in New York, how did you feel about that?

Maybe the east coast Latin overshadowed the west coast Latin in England, but the west coast bands did just fine. If anything San Francisco, Ca. and the bay area drew people to see the big east coast bands, but remember the Los Angeles area has approximately 12-15 million Mexican people and they really don't like salsa music. Some do, but the majority like tropical, rancheras and ballads music. That's why Tejano Music doesn't draw real well in southern California.

Who are your favourite Latin artists and influences?

Tito Puente, a good friend of mine. Plain awesome. Perez Prado, another friend of mine, Had a major influence on my composing. Sonora Santanera, the leader asked me to join them, but I would have had to move to Mexico. I was doing well with my band so I really wasn't interested. I had other groups that asked me to join them, but I felt I could do better on my own and I did.

Are you still playing today and in contact with the original members of the Teardrops?

I am not playing as of now, but the offers coming in to start the band, are getting really good. I won't say never. The guys in the band want to do it, but I don't know that I'm willing to pay the price of 3 months of rehearsal. To do it right would take a lot of time. I don't know that I could handle the travel. As you know, flying is also a pain in the butt. My musicians and I are always in contact with each other, because we were family then and continue to be family now. We went through a lot together. We really had a good band. (Fabulous musicians)

With Ubiquity reissuing 'Si Si Puede', your LP's starting to sell for $$$ on eBay and various tracks getting noticed by European funk/jazz/Latin DJs, I can see a selected Ray Camacho compilation selling very well. How do you feel about this new interest in your music some 30 years later?

I am overwhelmed that Europe is starting to like our stuff. I feel so grateful to people like you who have taken the time to help us promote our sound. I really feel we were a little ahead of our time, because now people beg me to play again because there are no bands like mine around. I really appreciate what you are doing for us.

Many thanks to Ray for taking the time to talk to me. Look out for 'Bay Area Funk 2' on Ubiquity and there's a few Ray Camacho tracks on our mixes (downloadable on this site) to get a taste, and search those record stores for original copies of his many LPs.

Hopefully we'll see a new compilation LP coming soon!