Rafe Gomez

Rafe Gomez is an American business writer, sales support consultant, lecturer, music producer, and DJ.

Rafe Gomez - business writer, sales support consultant, lecturer, music producer, and DJ.

DJ career

The Groove Boutique

Sirius Satellite Radio

In the late 1990s through early 2000s, Gomez had been working as a producer of library music for film and television and also a jazz/groove club DJ in northern New Jersey. In his club work, he created a danceable blend of 70s jazz fusion, funky jazz, breakbeat jazz, and Latin jazz; 80s UK jazz-funk; 90s acid jazz; and European club/dancefloor/nu jazz, chill, and nu bossa.

In 2002, Gomez approached Sirius Satellite Radio with the idea of hosting, performing, and producing a weekend jazz mix show. Sirius hired Gomez to create the show, which was named “In The Mix” and featured six hours of Saturday evening programming on Sirius’ Planet Jazz channel.^[1]

Gomez’s mixes incorporated both old school and contemporary jazz and groove-oriented tracks. His mixing didn’t utilize quick cuts or scratching: he let the songs play for almost their entire length, and then beat-matched the gaps, breaks, or fades with the intros of his next chosen selections that had the same beats-per-minute count. This unique approach to the presentation of jazz was heavily influenced by the open, programming-driven spinning styles of such notable New York DJ’s as Ted Currier (WBLS, The Funhouse), Jonathan Fearing (WBLS), and Larry Levan (The Paradise Garage).^[2]

WQCD-FM and national syndication

Gomez’s “In The Mix” began generating coverage on jazz blogs and websites, including AllAboutJazz.com, one of the world’s most visited online jazz communities. His mixes appeared on popular groove-oriented DJ sites, including Soulstrut.com, MrSoulSatisfaction.com, and the Netherlands-based jazz-funk site Royalgroove.com.

His work attracted the attention of WQCD-FM/CD101.9 in New York, which at the time was the most listened-to smooth jazz radio station in America.^[3] Executives at CD101.9 were seeking ways to attract younger listeners to the station, and they felt that Gomez’s spin on jazzy music would be a solution. They arranged for Gomez to have a show syndicated to smooth jazz stations in major American markets, and in September 2003, Gomez’s program – “The Groove Boutique” – aired for two hours on Saturday evenings.^[4]

“The Groove Boutique” soon began to generate media coverage for Gomez (and CD101.9) in The Daily News, The Star-Ledger, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and more. The show proved to be a ratings success and also a moneymaker for the station: advertisers wanted Gomez to perform live DJ mixes at their places of business to build floor traffic and attract customers. The popularity and profitability of “The Groove Boutique” inspired CD101.9 to air short versions of Gomez’s mixes during the week (“The Groove Boutique Blends”) and also double the length of his Saturday night program to four hours.

Throughout its run on CD101.9 (2003 – 2008), “The Groove Boutique” became one of the top Arbitron rated (and frequently #1 Arbitron rated) Saturday night radio programs in the New York metro market.

Productions

Gomez compiled and created the world’s first continuous mix jazz CD in 2003 with the release “Smooth Grooves 4”, on Higher Octave Records (“A happy, rhythm-intensive shock… a cutting edge, clubland vibe… a whole new sonic level… Gomez keeps the grooves hopping.” – Allmusic^[5] ).

The album featured a seamless merge of contemporary jazz and world music selections by such artists as Cooly’s Hot Box, Four80East, Acoustic Alchemy, Tom Scott, Les Nubians, and Sacred Spirit.

In 2004, Gomez compiled and mixed “Groove Boutique:Volume One” on Tommy Boy Records. The CD included deep groove jazzy funk by such artists as Jimjam, Clan Greco, Ramsey Lewis, Slide Five, Soulive, Copa 7, The Headhunters, and Orange Factory.

The album also included the nu bossa track “Icy”, which Gomez co-produced with David Baron at Edison Studios in New York (“A treat.” – Allmusic;^[6] “A funky, Latin-flavored little number.” – CD Universe;^[7] “Amazing.” - Amazon^[8]). “Icy” was a top 10 requested hit on smooth jazz radio stations across the U.S.^[9]

In 2005, Gomez returned to Edison Studios with Baron to create a jazz remix of Smokey Robinson’s 1975 soul hit “Quiet Storm” for the album Motown Remixed.

Gomez and Baron maintained the song’s original vocal and flute tracks and floated them over a new production that featured a four-piece jazz combo, which included drummer Jojo Mayer and vibraphonist Roy Ayers (“Never sounded better.” – The Couch Sessions;^[10] “Lush, subtle.” – Billboard;^[11] “Gomez and Baron absolutely FREAKED this song.” – Image Eye Nation^[12] ) ; "An unheralded gem." - Roy Ayers Project.^[13] The Groove Boutique remix of “Quiet Storm” became an international club hit and a favorite of influential British DJ Gilles Peterson.^[14]

QVC

In 2005 and 2006, Gomez hosted a one-hour program on QVC called “The Groove Boutique”, where he sold jazz and groove CDs and welcomed live guest performances from Marcus Johnson, Jason Miles, Steve Oliver, and Bobby Caldwell.^[15]

Live performances

Gomez performed live at jazz festivals, lounges, clubs, cruises, and food/wine events across the United States from 2004 through the end of 2008.^[16] His favorite gear consisted of two Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000 decks, a Pioneer DJM2000 mixer, and a Yamaha DD65 digital drum kit.

Gomez’s usage of the Yamaha DD65 grew out a desire to present more of a show for his club and festival audiences. Since he wasn’t scratching, he felt that playing the DD65 would not only be entertaining for clubgoers, it would also allow him to create live percussion overdubs on-the-fly throughout his sets (Gomez had played drums and percussion as a teen).^[17]

Gomez’s innovative combination of DJ sets with the playing of live electronic percussion made him the first DJ in the world, of any genre, to offer this distinctive performance tandem.

Rockmixx

Gomez’s most recent DJ project is Rockmixx, which is billed as “the world’s first party rock mash-up feature”.^[18]

On Rockmixx, Gomez takes energetic, uptempo classic rock hits by such artists as Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Queen, and Guns N' Roses and matches them by key and beats-per-minute with other classic rock hits.^[19] He merges the tracks using a drop-in style that’s reminiscent of the rhythmic sound collages which were pioneered by Double Dee and Steinski and MARRS in the 1980s.

Gomez only uses commercially available rock tracks in his mashes (no outtakes, isolated tracks, bootlegs, club remixes, or unreleased versions), and combines them exclusively with other rock hits (no hip hop, house, electronic dance music, or pop).

Rockmixx is distributed to rock radio stations around the world by Radio Express, and has aired in Moscow, Trinidad, Finland, Mexico, Panama, and other territories.

The Rehirement Coach

When his career as a jazz DJ came to an end in 2008, Gomez had a difficult time finding work. He studied the available job search literature, attended seminars, and spent time researching career tips online, but nothing was helpful.^[20] He then applied a little-known sales strategy that was successful for him when he appeared on QVC to his job search efforts, and he immediately began getting work as a copywriter and marketing consultant (which is what Gomez did prior to his DJ pursuits).^[21]

Gomez took his discovery and used it as the theme for an audiobook entitled “What’s In It For Me? A Powerful New Interview Strategy To Get You Hired In Today’s Challenging Economy”. Gomez wrote, narrated, and produced the audiobook, which featured music by jazz guitarist Matt Marshak in the chapter transitions.^[22]

“What’s In It For Me?” was made available on Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon, and it became a top-selling title in the careers category. The success of “What’s In It For Me?” yielded media coverage for Gomez on MSNBC, PBS, Fox News Channel, WCBS-AM, WOR-AM, WLW-AM, ABC News Radio, NY1, and many more top tier outlets. He has also written articles on career topics for FoxBusiness.com, Forbes, The New York Daily News, MyCollegesandCareers.com, and Radio-Info.com.

Sales support consulting

Gomez currently works as a consultant, providing multimedia sales support content creation, strategic messaging, and p.r. services to companies around the world. His perspectives on a variety of business topics have been featured in such media outlets as CMO.com, SalesAndMarketing.com, MarketingProfs.com, PR Daily, Under30CEO.com, the New York Daily News, Radio Ink, YFS Magazine, FoxBusiness.com, Yahoo! Small Business, CEO Blog Nation, Direct Marketing News, Wordpreneur, Mashable, M.O., Business 2 Community, CBS Moneywatch, the American Express OPEN Forum, Brandweek, Adweek, and Entrepreneur Magazine.^[23]

References