Scot Ray Quintet

Scot Ray (trombone, tuba, and dobro) is an active LA based musician. Ray was born in Crystal, Minnesota in ‘63 and shortly later moved to Montana. From the age of fifteen, Ray was cutting his teeth playing the haunts and shanties of the Northwest, performing everything from Dixieland to country-swing, big band to reggae, rhythm & blues to Seattle grunge. Those from the day might recall such local favorites as Skunkthroat, Nightsnacker, Tzuris, This Is Now, or The Dreadbeats, to name but a few. 

Suffice it to say that after many enlightening twists and turns, Ray arrived in Los Angeles and completed a degree in ‘Jazz and African-American Music’ from California Institute of the Arts.  Ray then spent a 2 1/2 year period recording and touring with ‘Stray Cat’ Brian Setzer and his rockabilly orchestra.  Ray received a Grammy for his work on "Caravan" from Setzer’s 2000 release entitled Vavoom. Ray has also performed with Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Cash McCall, Clark Terry, Elliot Easton, Francisco Aguabella, and Gwen Stefani, as well as working with such new music pioneers as Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier, Steuart Liebig, Michael Cain, Adam Lane, Ryan Francesconi, Tom Varner & Mark Dresser.  Ray has recorded on numerous labels including Cryptogramophone, Ninewinds, Elektra/Asylum, Cadence, Interscope, Cornerstone, Win Records, Atlantic, & Polygram. He has performed in well over a dozen countries including appearances at the The DuMaurier Jazz Festival and Eddie Moore Jazz Festival. In addition to playing on numerous soundtracks, Ray has also performed on such prime time shows as Sessions At W. 54th Street, Conan O’Brien, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, none of which he watches. 

Besides performing with his own quintet, Ray can currently be heard playing in Bill Barrett’s Circle Of Willis, Kingcake, The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, both Steuart Liebig’s Seconda Prattica & Kammerstig and Rich West’s Bedouin Hornbook.