Ray Charles Genius And Soul 50th

RAY CHARLES IN FIVE SONGSAugust 7, 2017 by SFJAZZRay CharlesThe “Genius of Soul” is nearly unsurpassed in his contribution to American music. In over fifty years of writing, performing, and recording, Ray Charles left his indelible mark on rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, rock & roll, and even country. We highlight five key songs that span his prolific career.1. 'Confession Blues'Recorded in 1949, shortly after Ray Charles relocated to Seattle (where he famously met songwriter Robert Blackwell and a young Quincy Jones), 'Confession Blues' was released on the short-lived Down Beat Records label as The Maxin Trio (actually, The McSon Trio, the label misnamed it). The song emulated the style of Nat King Cole (who Charles modeled himself after early on) and reached #2 on the R&B charts, his first national hit.2. 'I Got A Woman'Ray Charles' first chart topper, and one of his best known songs, co-written with trumpeter Renald Richard while on the road in 1954. 'I Got A Woman' reached #1 on the R&B chart after its release in 1955 on Atlantic Records. The song bridged together gospel, jazz and R&B into what would become Charles' signature sound, later dubbed 'soul music.'

'What I'd Say'Following a simiar sonic recipe as 'I Got A Woman,' Charles finally cracked the Billboard Top 10 with 'What I'd Say' (Atlantic Records), as 'soul music' entered the mainstream. At the time of its release, the song's sexual innuendos were quite controversial, but nevertheless immensely popular. It became Charles' first gold record, and his go-to closer for live shows.4. 'Georgia On My Mind'Following the success of 'What I'd Say,' Ray Charles decided not to resign with Atlantic Records, opting for a lucrative deal with ABC-Paramount.

Jazz fans may remember his 1960 Quincy Jones-collaboration Genius + Soul = Jazz (released on ABC's subsidiary label Impulse!), but it was his signature interpretation of 'Georgia on My Mind' that received popular acclaim and four GRAMMY Awards.5. 'Here We Go Again' w/ Norah JonesCharles' final studio album, Genius Loves Company (Concord Records), paired the legend with a number of former collaborators, peers and muses – from Natalie Cole, Elton John and James Taylor, to Norah Jones, Van Morrison and Willie Nelson. Released posthumously, the album is packed with hits and racked up eight GRAMMY Awards, icluding Album of the Year, as well as Record of the Year for 'Here We Go Again.'

Robert Christgau: The Genius at Work: Ray Charles, A Critical DiscographyWritings:Web Site:Carola Dibbell:Venues:The Genius at WorkA Critical Discography: Five Decades of Blues, Soul, R&B, Jazz, Country and Classic SchmaltzAny buyer's guide to Ray Charles records will be problematicbecause Ray Charles' discography is a monumental mess. The stalwartAll Music Guide lists some sixty original albums and 200-pluscompilations, and there are more. Charles' forty-one pre-Atlantictracks have been recycled so relentlessly that in early 2004, twentylabels had interchangeable collections in print.With his vastpost-Atlantic output, there's the opposite problem: scarcity. AmongCharles' many innovations is that after 1960 he owned the masters ofall his new recordings. A legendary skinflint, Charles set a highprice on this work. That's one reason the reissue giant Rhino, part ofthe same corporation as Atlantic, has leaned heavily on theR&B-jazz Charles of the mid- to late Fifties.

In 1998, Rhinoreleased a flawed series of post-Atlantic twofers that lost steambefore it passed 1965. The program should resume in 2005.

As of now,though, many of Charles' better albums have never reached CD.There's another problem: Even Charles' better albums wereimperfect. In 1960, he started a publishing company called TangerineMusic and all but stopped writing songs, instead collecting royaltieson the undistinguished copyrights of his stable. More important,Charles' musical omnivorousness extended well beyond his oft-citedblues-gospel-country-jazz synthesis. Great American that he was,Charles didn't love just the certified roots genres - he lovedschmaltz, and he loved schlock. The schmaltz, typified by theserviceable string arrangements of Sid Feller, he oftentransformed. The schlock, embodied by big bands and choral backup,could be ruinous. Sometimes the bands are solid jazz and the chorusesacceptable schmaltz, and either can provide punch.

But they blast orswamp too many tracks into the wide blue yonder or the briny deep.Because Charles remains both seminal and enjoyable, however, hisgaffes have their own charm, especially alongside his strokes of, asthe saying goes, genius. Bless him for never making a gospelalbum. And understand that any map of his oeuvre must be personal andprovisional.That said, there's one clear reference point, a monument visiblefrom a mile away: 1997's five-CD, 102-track Genius and Soul: The50th Anniversary Collection (Rhino), selected in part by BrotherRay himself, reportedly upon the occasion of a seven-figureadvance. G&S stands astride all of Charles' work, testifyingnoisily to his continuing vitality. Of course preferences vary. Ofcourse there are classics passed by ('Mess Around') and rarities thatdeserve nothing better ('The Cincinnati Kid'). But embrace hisall-embracing aesthetic and you'll agree that, as seldom happens withthese megaboxes, the final CD is a worthy companion to the first -that in fact Leon Russell's 'A Song for You' and Paul Simon's 'StillCrazy After All These Years,' which end it, are more typical and justplain better than Ray's own 'Confession Blues' and 'Baby Let Me HoldYour Hand,' which begin it.

(Budget alternative: Rhino's two-CDUltimate Hits Collection, which includes 'Mess Around.' )If you crave Charles' early sides, you've got some blues scholar inyou, so spring for the neat, complete, well-annotated Birth of aLegend 1949-1952 double (Ebony).

The piano pleases, the singingdevelops and the songwriting tops out with the jocose 'Kissa Me Baby.' Soon he'll flower. But Nat 'King' Cole and Charles Brown worked thesame lounge-trio vein with far more flair. (Budget alternative: TheEarly Years, on King.) In full bloom is The Birth of Soul: TheComplete Atlantic Rhythm & Blues Recordings, 1952-1959(Atlantic). As product, the three-CD, 151-minute box comes withcaveats. As listening, it's the rockingest Charles long-form you canbuy. Although Charles' fabled blues-gospel synthesis is on displayfrom 'I Got a Woman' to 'I Believe to My Soul,' 'birth of soul' getsthe emphasis wrong.

Seldom conventionally catchy, this RobertPalmer-annotated collection epitomizes a world-historic catchall of agenre that Charles could only describe as 'genuine down-to-earth Negromusic' - namely, rhythm & blues. Crack bands, first Atlantic'sand then his own, underpin his rich, gravelly vocals with hard-hittinggrooves of deceptive rhythmic and harmonic complexity. Halfway in, afemale backup group soon to be known as the Raeletts starts shoring uphis male voice and egging it on, an innovation that became a cliche sofast people think it was always there. (Budget alternative: Rhino'sThe Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years.)The caveats are economic. Not only would the three CDs fit ontotwo, but twenty of the fifty-one songs - the catchiest, natch -repeat on G&S. And eighteen, including four also on G&S,appear on the astute Blues + Jazz twofer (Rhino). Jazz chopshelped define Charles' singular pop identity, and he both articulatedand stimulated an appetite for 'soul jazz.'

The Genius Of Ray Charles

He was a tastier soloistthan vamp merchants such as Les McCann. But a pantheon jazzman he wasnot, and only vibraphone connoisseurs will want all of his renownedMilt Jackson collaborations (available in toto as SoulBrothers/Soul Meeting, on Rhino). Highlighting combo interactionsfar from the big-band bombast of its dreadful opposite number,Genius + Soul = Jazz/My Kind of Jazz, Blues + Jazz's artfullyconfigured jazz disc includes sessions led by Charles' longtimesaxophonist David 'Fathead' Newman, who did more with his jazz conceptthan its inventor.

Charles even plays alto sax on a few cuts - damnwell, for a few cuts. Redundant or not, the blues disc goes down justas smooth, epitomizing a perfect mix of down-home and citified the waythe jazz one does a perfect mix of unintellectual and uncorny. Throwup your hands and buy a bunch of songs twice (or thrice).Buy both volumes of the legendary Modern Sounds in Country &Western Music and you'll duplicate seven more. Unfortunately, youcan't - not both, not on CD, not without investing in songs you don'twant once.

The two Modern Sounds albums occupy Disc One of thefour-CD Complete Country & Western Recordings1959-1986. The remainder of the box comprises G&S desirablesfrom the Atlantic Hank Snow cover 'I'm Movin' On' to the ColumbiaGeorge Jones collab 'We Didn't See a Thing'; dubious follow-up countryLPs; and uneven product from Charles' Nashville foray on Columbia inthe Eighties, including the not-bad-at-all duet album Friendship(available from Columbia as Ray Charles and Friends' SuperHits), where Ricky Skaggs and Hank Williams Jr. Attain gloriesbeyond the reach of the Oak Ridge Boys. Inevitably, the box alsofeatures magnificent obscurities: bluesified 'Ring of Fire'; GeorgeJones-worthy 'A Girl I Used to Know'; hee-hawing '3/4 Time' - allburied so deep they deserve a downloading.Oh, well.

Volume Two vinyl is findable used online, and it'shalf a step down from Modern Sounds itself, which remains theway to go. This CD stands as so much more than proof we no longer needthat an African-American can sing country music. It did nothing lessthan redefine American pop. Sonically bolder (and schlockier) than,for instance, Owen Bradley's countrypolitan Patsy Cline productions,its massed strings, horns and choruses broke down the walls betweenclassic Tin Pan Alley and declasse Nashville. In the world it created,not only could a black person sing the American songbook EllaFitzgerald owned by then, but a country black person could take itover.

Soon Charles' down-home diction, cotton-field grit, corn-ponehumor and overstated shows of emotion were standard operatingprocedure in American music, black and white.Even before Modern Sounds, though, Charles' move to ABC hadpaid off with his first Number One single, a version of HoagyCarmichael's 'Georgia On My Mind' that heralded the even huger 'ICan't Stop Loving You.' The LP it launched, The Genius Hits theRoad, was a big-band concept album about American place names, andit, too, had a precedent: The Genius of Ray Charles, onAtlantic - an eclectic standards collection ranging from 'Alexander'sRagtime Band' to 'Come Rain or Come Shine' to the Percy Mayfield blues'Two Years of Torture.' Thank producers Jerry Wexler and NesuhiErtegun, who noodged five different arrangers into the subtlest chartsof Charles' career. Charles tried many times, but except for ModernSounds, he never again assembled such a consistent album in thismode.Tops among Rhino's ABC reissues is Sweet and Sour Tears, aconcept album about crying, overseen by Feller, who was made for thetheme, and augmented by otherwise unavailable bonus cuts that fitright in. Beyond its G&S tracks, The Genius Hits the Roadis more awkward, its standouts a comic 'New York's My Home' and a'Moonlight in Vermont' that clearly inspired Willie Nelson's. RayCharles and Betty Carter/Dedicated to You is a harder call.

Withall respect to Raelett Margie Hendrix, Carter proves the most giftedwoman singer Charles ever worked with, matching him as they honortunes such as 'Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye,' 'For All We Know' and'Baby, It's Cold Outside.' But Dedicated to You, a conceptalbum about girls' names, smarms out past 'Stella by Starlight' and'Sweet Georgia Brown.' Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul/Have aSmile With Me is up and down at a lower level - three ofIngredients' four winners are on G&S, with the BennyCarter-arranged 'In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)' a lostclassic.

It's paired with a concept album about novelty songs, whichis the funniest thing about it.As Charles stopped scoring hits, his albums got ever dicier, but atleast four vinyl-onlys from the Seventies distinguishthemselves. Volcanic Action of My Soul (Tangerine/ABC) istextbook hodgepodge: Beatles songs, Jimmy Webb songs, country dink, ablues, an ASCAP chestnut and 'All I Ever Need Is You,' soon to go TopTen for Sonny and Cher. A Message From the People(Tangerine/ABC) is Charles' idea of patriotism. Keyed to what waseventually recognized as a classic rendition of 'America theBeautiful,' it salutes James Weldon Johnson, Stevie Wonder and JohnDenver; gleefully reconstructs Melanie's 'Look What They've Done to MySong, Ma'; and tarries with three of his own copyrights. In 1977,Charles returned to Atlantic for True to Life, where a side ofmixed standards - from 'I Can See Clearly Now' to 'How Long Has ThisBeen Going On' - was enough to overwhelm the three Tangerine songs onthe B side. Even better was 1979's Ain't It So, whose 'Some EnchantedEvening,' 'Blues in the Night' and 'What'll I Do' would have sprucedup Rhino's Standards rehash.Yet not long afterward, Charles' effective recording career groundto a halt.

He was only fifty in 1980, but age can do that if you'reout of touch, and though Charles toured hard for as long as his bodyheld up, the gigs became routinized and nostalgia-driven. The mostvivid document of how alive they once were is the skillfully compiledtwo-disc Ray Charles in Concert (Rhino), which opens with thedon't-miss Margie Hendrix pas de deux '(Night Time Is) The Right Time'as it cherry-picks shows from 1958, 1959, 1962 and 1964 (the firsttwo, from his rock & roll youth, make up Atlantic's single-discRay Charles Live). The 1975 Tokyo and Yokohama performancesthat fill out the second half of Disc Two betray no letdown. But bythe Eighties, the round of bookings began to get old.Anyway, for whatever reason, his 1978 discofied Atlantic album wasdead on its feet, his Nashville period we've covered, his halfheartedmodernizations for Warners failed to jell, and the 2002 Thanks forBringing Love Around Again was sadly diminished. With an artist asrestless and prolific as Ray Charles, however, it's never that simple- the Leon Russell and Paul Simon titles that climax G&S weredone for Warners.

Anyone who takes time to listen can find favoritesin unlikely places - such as the ancient standard 'By the Light ofthe Silvery Moon' on 1966's surprisingly R&B Ray's Moods; or the'Sail Away' on 1975's Renaissance wickeder than Etta James'; orthe great good time he has sharing 'Save the Bones for Henry Jones'with Lou Rawls and Milt Jackson on 1988's Just BetweenUs. Maybe if some taskmaster had compelled Ray Charles to channelhis genius, he would have made still more wonderful records. But theywouldn't be as unpredictable - or, therefore, as wonderful - as whathe produced on his own. That's a terrific trade-off.Rolling Stone, July 8, 2004.