Jazz Articles about Ray Charles

Ray Charles: Rare Genius

by Chris May
July 25, 2011

Concord's reissue of vocalist and keyboardist Ray Charles' albums for ABC-Paramount, the label he moved to from Atlantic in 1959, is a mixed bag. It includes two winners, The Genius Hits The Road (1960) and Modern Sounds In Country Music Vols. 1 & 2 (1962), a so-so concept album, A Message From The People (1973)--and, in Live In Concert (1965), a stone masterpiece, Charles' all-round best live album. This edition is made essential listening by the inclusion of six previously ...

Various Artists: First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary

by Chris May
May 15, 2011

The headline news on this lavishly packaged, four-CD collection of the work of the Impulse! label's founding producer, Creed Taylor, is that it includes three previously unreleased tracks by John Coltrane. These were recorded during rehearsals for what would become the saxophonist's Impulse! debut, Africa/Brass, in 1961. They have a combined playing time of less than eight minutes, but as newly discovered Coltrane recordings are reduced to a trickle with the passage of time, the arrival of any such material, ...

Ray Charles: Ray Charles Live in Concert

by C. Michael Bailey
April 8, 2011

The Concord Music group inaugurated a release cycle celebrating Ray Charles' 80th birthday with Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters (Concord Records, 2010). Now, its reissue of Ray Charles Live in Concert, expanded with previously unreleased material from the same September 20, 1964 performance at the Shrine Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, captures Charles enjoying the pinnacle of his powers. Charles released few commercial live recordings in the 1950s and '60s, when his considerable talent and influence were ...

Ray Charles: Genius: The Ultimate Collection

by Chris May
November 26, 2010

If you want a Ray Charles best-of album you've got plenty to pick from, and the run-up to the holiday season often adds another one. But this year's contender, the 21-track, 71-minute Genius: The Ultimate Collection, stands out from the crowd. For three reasons... First, the choice of tracks has a tight, coherent focus. Aside from a 1964 live version of “Hallelujah I Love Her So" and a 1972 studio recording of “America The Beautiful," all the selections ...

Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz

by C. Michael Bailey
May 2, 2010

Ray Charles Genius + Soul = Jazz Concord Music 2010

Ray Charles spent the 1950s and 1960s transforming the atomic American musics of gospel, the blues, R&B and country into what has been tagged “soul." Should jazz have been immune to his considerable charms? No, of course not. During the early 1960s, Charles was making his transition from Atlantic Records to ABC Records. This transition was surrounded by the releases of The Genius Sings ...

Ray Charles: Original Album Series

by Chris May
March 29, 2010

Ray Charles Original Album Series Warner/Rhino 2010 (1957-61)

Singer and pianist Ray Charles' period with Atlantic Records, from 1953 to 1960, which is the subject of Warner/Rhino's Original Album Series, was the most exciting in Charles' long and well documented career. Preceding the country music years which began on ABC in the early 1960s, the Atlantic era found Charles recording albums rather than singles; establishing his own touring and recording band, and ...

Ray Charles & the Count Basie Orchestra: Ray Sings, Basie Swings

by Martin Gladu
December 29, 2006

There is no recipe for success...or is there? Concord's Ray Sings, Basie Swings, reminiscent of past crossover duos, draws upon state-of-the-art technological means to propose a premium posthumous montage. Does this sound formulaic and forced? Maybe, but in the end, they credibly made it more musically attractive than say, yet another best of greatest hits compilation.

Spearheaded by Senior VP of A&R John Burk and producer/drummer Gregg Field, the serendipitous project does swing. And, like Genius Loves Company ...