Musicians - Ray Charles

Home > Listing Index > Musicians > Ray Charles

	Musicians - Ray Charles

For Ray Charles of the Ray Charles Singers, and longtime vocal conductor for Perry Como, see Ray Charles (elder).

Ray Charles was the stage name of Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004). He was a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who helped shape the sound of rhythm and blues and brought a soulful sound to everything from country music to pop standards to a now-iconic rendition of "America the Beautiful." Frank Sinatra called him "the only genius in the business."

Biography

Early years

Ray Charles Robinson was born in Albany, Georgia to poor sharecroppers parents, Bailey and Aretha Robinson. The family moved to Greenville, Florida when he was still an infant. His father wasn't around much as he worked and had 2 other families, leaving his mother to raise the family with the aid of his father's wife Mary Jane, who helped raise Ray. When Ray was 5 his younger brother, George, who was around 4, drowned in an outside tub. Ray witnessed him fall and tried to pull him out, but he was too heavy for Ray. Ray began going blind soon after and was totally blind by the age of seven. He said that the causes were undiagnosed, but is probably a result of trachoma. (* Note - there are sources which attribute Ray's blindness to glaucoma. However Ray Charles' symptoms and subsequent blindness are inconsistent with glaucoma. Moreover, childhood glaucoma is a rare condition, while trachoma was — and still is — a leading (and preventable) cause of blindness.) He attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida, as a charity case; he learned how to read Braille, as well as to write music and play various musical instruments. While he was there, his mother Aretha died. His father died twenty years later.

Ray was born with a love for music . One of his early childhood influences was a man named Wylie Pitman. Wylie Pitman was the owner of Red Wing Cafe. It was located across the road in Ray's home. Having no children, Mr. Pit, as Ray called him, treated him like his own son and taught him how to play the piano. Ray was allowed to come in the cafe and play the piano at his own free will. Ray also had a "reserved" spot next to the jukebox. With Mr. Pit's help, Ray developed a strong passion for music.

After he left school, Charles began working as a musician in Florida in several bands that played in various styles including jazz and country music, eventually moving to Seattle in 1947 at the age of sixteen. He soon started recording, first for the label, Swingtime Records, achieving his first hit song with "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951). When he entered show business, his name was shortened to Ray Charles to avoid confusion with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Early influences on his work were Nat King Cole (both his vocals and piano playing) and Charles Brown. While his first recordings were only skillful imitations of his heroes, Charles' music soon became more innovative. After joining Atlantic Records in 1952, Charles' sound became more original. For example, Charles controversially adapted secular lyrics to many gospel songs and then played them with jazz backgrounds.

Middle years

Charles had also another hit with the rap-like version of "It Should Have Been Me," but went into high gear with the gospel drive of "I Got a Woman" (1955). This was followed by "This Little Girl of Mine," "Drown in My Own Tears," "Hallelujah I Love Her So.," and "Lonely Avenue." Half of them were gospel songs converted with secular lyrics, and the others blues ballads.

After an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival he achieved mainstream success with "The Night Time (Is The Right Time)" and his 1959 signature song, "What'd I Say". The essence of this phase of his career can be heard on his live album Ray Charles In Person, recorded before a mostly African American audience in Atlanta in 1959. This album also features the first public performance of "What'd I Say." It broke out as a hit in Atlanta from the tape, months before it was recorded in the studio in a two-part version with better fidelity.

Ray had already begun to go beyond the limits of the blues-gospel synthesis while still at Atlantic, which now called him The Genius. He recorded with very large orchestras and with jazz artists like Milt Jackson and even made his first country music cover song with Hank Snow's "I'm Movin' On."

He then moved on to ABC Records, where he was given a great deal of control over his music, and broadened his approach, not on experimental side projects, but with pop music, resulting in such hits as "Unchain My Heart" and the #1 hit on the Billboard pop charts, "Hit the Road, Jack." In 1962, Charles surprised his new, broad audience with his landmark album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which included the numbers "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "You Don't Know Me." This was followed by a series of hits, including "You Are My Sunshine," "Crying Time," "Busted," and "Unchain My Heart."

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Ray Charles ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Ray Charles; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Musicians - Ray Charles

Biography

Early years

Middle years

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay