Veléz started singing at age five and won an opera scholarship at age 12, as a
mezzo-soprano. She studied for three years, then went to the
High School of Performing Arts in
New York City. Veléz holds a master's degree from
Antioch University in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Cultural Mythology and Depth Psychology. She is a founding Fellow of the Imaginal Institute of Ojai, California. As a playwright, she wrote the award-winning play
Power of the Powerless. Veléz is interested in using her voice as a means for social change. on
Mercury Records. She was the female singer with Earl Mann, Al Alcabes, and Jeff Hyman. Veléz released her debut blues-rock album
Fiends and Angels on the Sire/Blue Horizon Records label in 1969. Backing musicians included
Eric Clapton,
Stan Webb (
Chicken Shack), and
Paul Kossoff (Free) on guitar,
Christine McVie (
Fleetwood Mac) on keyboards,
Jack Bruce on bass,
Mitch Mitchell (
The Jimi Hendrix Experience) on drums, and
Brian Auger on organ. The album was produced by
Mike Vernon. 1972 saw the release of Veléz's second album,
Hypnotized. In 1973, she released
Matinée Weepers, a collection of adult-contemporary pop. In May 1975, Veléz traveled to
Jamaica for three weeks to record with reggae artist
Bob Marley. She is the only American artist for whom Marley functioned as a music producer — the results were
Escape from Babylon. Producer
Craig Leon also contributed to this association. He asked Marley about doing the album with her; Marley listened to her composition, "Living Outside the Law" from her 1972 album,
Hypnotized, and felt a philosophical kinship. He also was impressed by her voice. Marley's positive response took them into the studio with his earlier producer
Lee "Scratch" Perry to work on producing
Escape from Babylon, released in 1976. The album also featured four Marley covers (
Bend Down Low,
Happiness,
There You Are, Get Up, Stand Up) and a Veléz-Marley composing collaboration,
Disco Night. The songwriting credits were given to
Rita Marley because of Marley's dispute with his publishers at the time. After
Escape from Babylon, Veléz only released one more album:
American Heartbeat (1977). A compilation,
Angels of the Future Past, was released in 1989. This did not include any songs from
Hypnotized (due to cross-licensing issues) or from
American Heartbeat (because the masters were missing at the time). Veléz resumed her acting career, which began with playing the lead in
Hair on Broadway. She moved on to acting in movies and TV series. Veléz was a series regular in the
Norman Lear sitcom
a.k.a. Pablo in 1984, and played a recurring role in
Falcon Crest (1986). In 1997, she acted in
One Eight Seven along with
Samuel L. Jackson. Veléz also worked in films with
Julianne Moore (
Safe),
Halle Berry and
Patrick Swayze (
Father Hood),
Dennis Hopper (
Nails), and played a lead role in the (
Sundance) winner
Star Maps, directed by
Miguel Arteta and produced by Mathew Greenfield. ==Personal life==