Ray

Ray Leonard, performing new age synthesizer music as Ray, has long worked as a seasoned recording engineer in Los Angeles. Raised as the son of a minister across several Texas towns, he started singing in church at age six, studied piano and violin during childhood, and received a guitar at twelve. Songwriting began soon afterward. While still in high school he played bass and guitar in a rock band. A brief enrollment at Washington State University included a synthesizer class that first acquainted him with the instrument. He subsequently spent seven years touring with the rock band Shadow. After the group relocated to Los Angeles it gained its widest exposure through an appearance in the 1981 horror film New Year's Evil. The band disbanded shortly thereafter, leading Ray to concentrate on engineering. His studio work involved artists such as Pat Benatar, Dio, Sammy Hagar, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Michael McDonald, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, the Pointer Sisters, Quarterflash, Ratt, R.E.O. Speedwagon, Diana Ross, and Rick Springfield. Following ten years inside Los Angeles recording facilities he moved into television sound mixing, specializing in animated series adapted from feature films that included Aladdin, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Back to the Future, Buzz Lightyear, Gargoyles, Godzilla, The Hulk, Jumanji, The Land Before Time, 101 Dalmatians, Pink Panther, Spiderman, and Starship Troopers. Those projects earned him three Emmy Awards. He simultaneously sustained activity as a performer and composer, appearing with jazz and blues ensembles throughout Los Angeles and scoring a documentary film. In 2001 he issued his first new age “space music” album, Ethereal Journey, on his own Ray Leonard Records label.