Ray Kamalay and His Red Hot Peppers + Annual Membership Meeting

In the early 1930’s America enjoyed a heyday of small band jazz, the likes of which it has not seen since. In ballrooms across North America hot jazz, laced with exciting improvisation, and ballads, blue and melancholy, told stories of joy and tragedy, and provided rhythm for the feet of dancers of the two-step, the Lindy and the Swing… Ray Kamalay and his Red Hot Peppers are reminiscent of this peculiar era. With some of the finest players in the United States, they play this music with all the excitement and sentiment typical of the period. And they have wowed audiences at some of the very finest venues, including Interlochen, Edinburgh and the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

Ray Kamalay is the singer, guitarist and leader of the band. A Detroit native, Ray started playing professionally immediately after graduating from the University of Detroit in 1974. Even then he showed an unusual interest in both folk music and jazz. In that same year, while searching for the ancient Celtic muse on the Shetland Islands, he got his first big dose of the music of Django Reinhardt. Since then his interest in both genres has only gotten bigger.

Ray has worked in association with many fine artists, including Joel Mabus, Johnny Frigo, James Dapogny, Betty Joplin, Jethro Burns, and Ralphe and Howard Armstrong. In 1997, Ray’s work with Ralphe and Howard Armstrong was nominated for the W. C. Handy Award. A student of the music, Ray lectures periodically at the college level wih a talk called, “World Slavery- The Haitian Revolution and The Rise of American Music.” His anecdotes are often highlights of the show.