Ray Charles

AKA born: Ray Charles Robinson Born Sep 23, 1930 in Albany, GA Died June 11, 2004 Styles Soul, R&B, Blues, Piano Blues, Urban Blues, Jazz Blues, Country-Soul, Pop-Soul Biography Ray Charles was the musician most responsible for developing soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even more to devise a new form of black pop by merging ’50s R&B with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the ’60s) country. Then there is his singing; his style is among the most emotional and easily identifiable of any 20th-century performer, up there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He’s also a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The brilliance of his 1950s and 1960s work, however, can’t obscure the fact that he’s made few classic tracks since the mid-’60s, though he’s recorded often and tours to this day. Blind since the age of six (from glaucoma), Charles studied composition and learned many instruments at the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind. His parents had died by his early teens, and he worked as a musician in Florida for a while before using his savings to move to Seattle in 1947. By the late ’40s, he was recording in a smooth pop/R&B style derivative of Nat «King» Cole and Charles Brown. He got his first Top Ten R&B hit with «Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand» in 1951. Charles’ first recordings have come in for their fair share of criticism, as they are much milder and less original than the classics that would follow, although they’re actually fairly enjoyable, showing strong hints of the skills that were to flower in a few years. In the early ’50s, Charles’ sound started to toughen as he toured with Lowell Fulson, went to New Orleans to work with Guitar Slim (playing piano on and arranging Slim’s huge R&B hit, «The Things That I Used to Do»), and got a band together for R&B star Ruth Brown. It was at Atlantic Records that Ray Charles truly found his voice, consolidating the gains of recent years and then some with «I Got a Woman», a number-two R&B hit in 1955. This is the song most frequently singled out as his pivotal performance, on which Charles first truly let go with his unmistakable gospel-ish moan, backed by a tight, bouncy horn-driven arrangement. Throughout the ’50s, Charles ran off a series of R&B hits that, although they weren’t called «soul» at the time, did a lot to pave the way for soul by presenting a form of R&B that was sophisticated without sacrificing any emotional grit. «This Little Girl of Mine», «Drown in My Own Tears», «Hallelujah I Love Her So», «Lonely Avenue», and «The Right Time» were all big hits. But Charles didn’t really capture the pop audience until «What’d I Say», which caught the fervor of the church with its pleading vocals, as well as the spirit of rock & roll with its classic electric piano line. It was his first Top Ten pop hit, and one of his final Atlantic singles, as he left the label at the end of the ’50s for ABC. One of the chief attractions of the ABC deal for Charles was a much greater degree of artistic control of his recordings. He put it to good use on early-’60s hits like «Unchain My Heart» and «Hit the Road Jack», which solidified his pop stardom with only a modicum of polish attached to the R&B he had perfected at Atlantic. In 1962, he surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country & western music, topping the charts with the «I Can’t Stop Loving You» single, and making a hugely popular album (in an era in which R&B/soul LPs rarely scored high on the charts) with Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been so surprising; Charles had always been eclectic, recording quite a bit of straight jazz at Atlantic, with noted jazz musicians like David «Fathead» Newman and Milt Jackson. Charles remained extremely popular through the mid-’60s, scoring big hits like «Busted», «You Are My Sunshine», «Take These Chains From My Heart», and «Crying Time», although his momentum was slowed by a 1965 bust for heroin. This led to a year-long absence from performing, but he picked up where he left off with «Let’s Go Get Stoned» in 1966. Yet by this time Charles was focusing increasingly less on rock and soul, in favor of pop tunes, often with string arrangements, that seemed aimed more at the easy listening audience than anyone else. Charles’ influence on the rock mainstream was as apparent as ever; Joe Cocker and Steve Winwood in particular owe a great deal of their style to him, and echoes of his phrasing can be heard more subtly in the work of greats like Van Morrison. One approaches sweeping criticism of Charles with hesitation; he’s an American institution, after all, and his vocal powers have barely diminished over the years. The fact remains, though, that his work since the late ’60s on record has been very disappointing. Millions of listeners yearned for a return to the all-out soul of his 1955—1965 classics, but Charles had actually never been committed to soul above all else. Like Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, his focus is more upon all-around pop than many realize; his love of jazz, country, and pop standards is evident, even if his more earthy offerings are the ones that truly broke ground and will stand the test of time. He’s dented the charts (sometimes the country ones) occasionally, and can command devoted international concert audiences whenever he feels like it. For good or ill, he ensured his imprint upon the American mass consciousness in the 1990s by singing several ads for Diet Pepsi. The CD era has seen several excellent packages that focus on various chronological/thematic phases of the legend’s career.

Discography (albums) 1957 Ray Charles [Atlantic] 1957 The Great Ray Charles [Atlantic] 1958 Ray Charles at Newport [live] 1958 Yes, Indeed!! 1958 Soul Brothers 1959 What’d I Say [live] 1959 The Genius of Ray Charles [Atlantic] 1960 Ray Charles in Person 1960 Genius + Soul = Jazz 1960 Ray Charles Sextet 1960 The Genius Hits the Road 1961 Dedicated to You 1961 Ray Charles and Betty Carter 1961 The Genius Sings the Blues 1961 Do the Twist With Ray Charles! 1961 The Genius After Hours 1961 Soul Meeting 1962 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 1962 Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,… 1962 The Original Ray Charles [London] 1962 Spotlight on Ray Charles 1963 Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul 1964 Sweet & Sour Tears 1964 Have a Smile With Me 1965 Live in Concert 1965 Country & Western Meets Rhythm & Blues 1965 Cincinnati Kid [Soundtrack] 1966 Crying Time 1966 Ray’s Moods 1967 A Man & His Soul 1967 Ray Charles Invites You to Listen 1969 I’m All Yours-Baby! 1969 Doing His Thing 1970 My Kind of Jazz 1970 Love Country Style 1971 Volcanic Action of My Soul 1972 A Message from the People 1972 Through the Eyes of Love 1972 Presents the Raelettes 1973 My Kind of Jazz, Number 2 1973 Genius in Concert L. A. [live] 1974 Come Live with Me 1975 Renaissance 1975 My Kind of Jazz, Pt. 3 1975 World of Ray Charles, Vol. 2 1975 Live in Japan 1976 Porgy & Bess 1977 True to Life 1978 Love & Peace 1979 Ain’t It So 1980 Brother Ray Is at It Again 1983 Wish You Were Here Tonight 1984 Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? 1984 Friendship 1985 The Spirit of Christmas 1986 From the Pages of My Mind 1988 Just Between Us 1988 Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music… 1990 Would You Believe? 1993 My World 1996 Strong Love Affair 1998 In Concert [Rhino] [live] 2002 Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again 2002 Ray Charles 2002 Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 2002 A Sentimental Blues 2003 Georgia on My Mind [Prism] 2003 Genius of Soul Live 2003 Blues Before Sunrise [Dynamic] 2004 In Concert [live]   Официальный сайт: www.raycharles.com