Martha Velez

Martha Velez, a singer and actress of Puerto Rican heritage from New York City, began singing at five and earned an opera scholarship as a mezzo-soprano at twelve. She trained at the High School of Performing Arts and started her recording career with the folk group The Gaslight Singers on Mercury Records. Her 1969 debut album Fiends and Angels, blues-rock produced by Mike Vernon, drew backing musicians including Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Christine McVie; Hypnotized followed in 1972 and Matinée Weepers in 1973. In 1975 she recorded Escape from Babylon in Jamaica with Bob Marley, who produced it, the only American artist for whom he did so. Acting began with the lead in Hair on Broadway and continued in the sitcom a.k.a. Pablo, a recurring part on Falcon Crest, and films including Star Maps (1997), Safe (1995), One Eight Seven (1997) and Father Hood (1993).