Raymond Genovese enjoyed success early in his career as his group Smoke was discovered and produced by founding member of the Jazz Crusaders Wayne Henderson. Smoke’s debut album on Casablanca Records received major airplay and enabled the group to tour extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Raymond Genovese has since gone on to work with numerous recording artists of note including Donna Summer, Max Bennett, Robert Conti, Billy Mitchell, The Four Freshmen, Beachfront Property, Tom Warrington, Dave Carpenter, John Anello, Tom Saviano and Ross Thomkins (of the Tonight Show Band). He has opened for such luminaries as Duke Ellington, The Righteous Brothers, Flash Cadillac, Larry Carlton, Error Garner and Sammy Davis, Jr.
“We have Elissa from Chicago, Olivia from Atlanta and Randell from Washington, D.C., all big time Jazz and Blues towns, all with authentic though, historically, slightly different takes on Rhythm and Blues. Since most of the best players tend to, sooner or later, gravitate to the greater Los Angeles area, I often feel like I’m the West Coast Cat charged with pulling all these influences into one, coherent direction.” — Raymond Genovese
Randell Young was introduced to Raymond Genovese by bassist Max Bennett (Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, The LA Express, Joni Mitchell) when he was asked to sub in (at the very last minute) for a well known guitarist who panicked when he found out the artist he was to open for was going to be Larry Carlton. Undaunted in spite of a precarious lack of time to prepare, Randell, Raymond, Max (and company) had no problem warming up Larry’s audience. When Randell heard Raymond was available, he invited him to join The Dominos, no audition needed.
“Raymond leads by example. Like Olivia, Elissa and Aaron, he has a lot of options open to him. That he has not only thrown in with The Dominos but also approached this project with such a fierce level of enthusiasm, clear vision and resolute purpose has definitely had a positive influence on all of us.” — Randell Young