The exacting restraint shown by Johnny Mathis on a lushly orchestrated "Over the Rainbow" meshes well with Charles' customary grittiness. Gladys Knight on the gospel style "Heaven Help Us All" is scorching. The album starts to shine whenever Charles has a partner who can keep up with his unpredictable musicality. Natalie Cole, Norah Jones, and Bonnie Raitt also provide solid, if unspectacular, turns. The duet with Diana Krall on "You Don't Know Me" is fine, although it doesn't live up to the superior version on Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music that was a hit for Charles. The majority of the album, however, ranges from pleasant to very good.
If their respective performances on "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" and "Hey Girl" got poked with a fork, molten cheese would ooze out. But that's better than Elton John and Michael McDonald. If Charles is the pie in the big band arrangement of James Taylor's "Sweet Potato Pie," then a befuddled Taylor must be a regular potato, because he's straight and bland. It's a fine swan song that is occasionally marred by its conceit.ĭuets comprise the album. The Concord Records release returns Charles to his musical roots of gospel, soul, blues and jazz while stripping away the calculated modern R&B veneer of his last few records. The Genius, as Charles was sometimes known, recorded his last album, Genius Loves Company, before succumbing to acute liver disease. No wonder they called him a genius.Ĭhicago, Illinois PLUG IT IN! TURN IT UP! Electric Blues 1939-2005.Yellows, pinks, and oranges combined with the encroaching black of night to form a cool reminder of Ray Charles' smoldering day. Of course, Ray's ceaseless musical experiments rendered him a superstar right up to his Jdeath. And so, as would be the case with many other sessions, when there had to be some direction from us because we weren't going anywhere, or some changes to be made, that wasn't the case with Ray." I mean, there was never anything negative or worrying, because Ray Charles had the whole thing figured out from beginning to end. "They were exciting, edifying, thrilling," said Wexler. His sessions were like no other at Atlantic. There Ray would transform R&B with his daring gospel/blues synthesis on the smashes I've Got A Woman, Hallelujah I Love Her So, and What'd I Say (speaking of advancements in electric instrumentation, he played a Wurlitzer piano on the latter). Swing Time was experiencing financial difficulties in 1952, so Lauderdale peddled Charles' contract to Atlantic. His first release was a hit and two more after that too, though his predilection for imitating Nat King Cole and Charles Brown hadn't been tamed yet. Jack Lauderdale of Swing Time/Down Beat Records brought Charles and his McSon Trio aboard in 1949. He left the state school for the blind at 15, his piano skills already formidable, and somehow made his way cross-country from Jacksonville, Florida to Seattle. "We got the backing musicians, we got the arranger Jesse Stone, we rehearsed, and so on."īorn in Albany, Georgia on Septembut raised in Greenville, Florida, Ray Charles Robinson lost his sight as a child but gained a love for music-blues, boogie-woogie, jazz, country-that was unshakable. "He still was being recorded in the conventional way, like you'd record almost any single singing artist," said Ray's late co-producer, Jerry Wexler. Ray had yet to explode with his groundbreaking gospel/blues synthesis, although his impassioned vocal and two-fisted piano offered clues as to his immediate future. Brother Ray didn't use a guitarist on his subsequent Atlantic sides, making Baker's presence quite unusual (arranger Jesse Stone wrote the song under his alias of Charles Calhoun).
Ray Charles had only recently joined the roster of Atlantic Records when he waxed the mournful blues Losing Hand on with a New York session crew consisting of saxists Dave McRae, Freddie Mitchell, and Pinky Williams, bassist Lloyd Trotman, drummer Connie Kay, and guitarist Mickey Baker, whose slippery chords cascade downward like thick, murky molasses.
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