[1][2] Ray Moreno Vasquez was born in Los Angeles on February 12, 1924, to immigrant parents from Mexico.
Growing up poor during the Great Depression era of the 1930s in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Vasquez attended Jordan High School.
He was an academic major and music minor, a member of the track and basketball teams, and a featured soloist (as a tenor) in the a cappella choir.
Vasquez studied trombone with the renowned Dr. Hiner (first cornetist with John Philip Sousa) in Highland Park.
He studied Shakespeare, theater technique, production, radio, television, dance, makeup and costuming.
[5] Ray Vasquez played trombone and sang with many local jazz bands in Los Angeles but soon broke away as a solo artist and began recording and touring.
His role in the development of the Latin music scene in Los Angeles is cited in the books Mexican American Mojo by Anthony Macias[4] and Barrio Rhythm: Mexican American Music in Los Angeles by Steven Joseph Loza.
He shared the bill with artists including Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Dorthy Louden, Kay Starr, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, George Gobel, Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Mitzi Gaynor, Sophie Tucker, Eleanor Powell, Danny Thomas, Myron Cohen, Dianah Shore, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, Polly Bergan, Donald O'Conner, Juliet Prowse, The Mills Brothers, Billy Eckstine, George Tapps, Harold Minsky, George Marrow, Bill Cosby, Nat King Cole, The Kingston Trio, Dorothy Dorben, Don Arden and Billy Daniels.
Taped in Perth, their television series on the Nine network The Ray and Renee Show created an American sensation in Australia.