Latin Soul Records - Orquesta Dee Jay Profile

As a result, in 1968 George started one of the most swingin’ Latin bands
with some of the youngest musicians in the Latin Music industry called
Orchestra Dee Jay. They had the crowds swingin’ and dancing to their
vibrant New York sound. The band performed in all the famous NYC
nightclubs including The Cheetah, The Psycho Room and “The Village
Gate” which only featured headliners. In addition to their great
performances on the New York Club scene, the group also appeared on
the Miguelito Valdez TV show.

While in the army, George’s fellow soldiers had difficulties pronouncing his
last name “De Jesus” so they nicknamed him Dee Jay. Cuban Latin music
producer Ralph Lew who spoke English came on board and formed a
Spanish name for the group “La Dee Jay” which was derived from “La
Orquesta Dee Jay.” Musicians from top performing bands such as Alfredo
(Chocolate) Armenteros called them “La Dee Jay”. Although most of the
band members with the exception of George De Jesus were born in New
York City they loved the idea of keeping the group name in Spanish even
though they could not speak Spanish well.

The band was not into the Boogaloo craze and wanted to keep their music
as typical as possible. In order to conform to record companies’ request,
“Black Shadow” was created and this was the only Boogaloo tune
recorded by this hard-hitting Salsa band. One may not notice Black
Shadow’s opening has a slight arrangement from the theme song to the
science fiction movie “2001 Space Odyssey.”

Their first LP recorded in 1970 on MGM Latino “Pa 'Alante Con La
Orquesta Dee Jay” (Straight Ahead with Orq. Dee Jay) was a big hit for
the group. Approximately a year later, another masterpiece album was
created called “Forget it” on Lewgas Records. The sweet Latin Soul tune
and the title track of the LP “Forget it” written by Armando Manzanero and
sang by the late trombonist and vocalist “Joe Rivera” never peaked to a
top ten position on the Latin American Hit Parade Billboard. However once
you listen to the sweet velvet sound of Joe Rivera with his stunning
English soulful lyrics, backed up with La Orquesta Dee Jay’s Latin ballad
arrangement, one can not imagine why this single “Forget it” never
peaked to number one or made it to the top ten.

Orquesta Dee Jay was a unique band who did not put any of their music
on paper. Their music was original and arrangements were created from
jam sessions they had before rehearsals in the basement of De Jesus
Bridal shop. “If it sounds good and it’s swingin’, the heck with it, let’s
record it” said George De Jesus.

Orquesta Dee Jay only recorded two smashing hit albums in the 1970’s.
Thanks to the research and promotions done by Jerry Hernandez on the
Internet with various salsa web sites such as The LatinSoulShow.com & La
Voz del Mambo.com, this remarkable band once again is starting to gain
popularity with the Dance and Classic Salsa community in South America,
Europe and other parts of the globe with their swingin’ classics. Will we
ever in our generation witness a reunion of this incredible Salsa Dura
Band known as “La Orquesta Dee Jay?”