The great Ray Charles died today and I had to come up with angle quickly for an article. After fretting for a bit, I did the obvious and put on a few songs - the angle was obvious: he absorbed more forms of American music than anyone and made them his own, reflecting both American commonality and individuality, and he classically embodied American contradictions. My MSNBC.com tribute:
- Ray Charles - the Genius, the High Priest of Soul - who died today at 73, did two things that tower above his other manifest accomplishments: he wrapped his arms more powerfully than any other artist around the width and breadth of American musical forms and drew them together into something beautifully and soulfully his own, and in doing this he embodied contradictions as extreme as the American experience itself.
The contradictions and broad musical reach began in his childhood in Albany, Georgia, and Greenville, Florida, where his family was poor and the Depression deep. The standard difficulties of poverty and black life in a segregated South escalated to tragedy when at five Charles witnessed the drowning death of his brother in his mother's take-in laundry tub, and at six lost his sight to (presumably) glaucoma. Given a choice, I imagine he would have chosen the order of the tragedies reversed: imagine such a sight seared into your brain with nothing to replace it for the next 68 years of your life.
And yet for all the blunt force of the hand of fate, Charles's early life was also touched with refinement and delicacy: he was sent away at age seven to the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, where he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille; score for big bands; and play piano, organ, sax, clarinet, trumpet under the influence of such notable musical sophisticates as big band clarinetist Artie Shaw, jazz piano giant Art Tatum, and classical composers Chopin and Sibelius. But at night, in the dark, he also loved to listen to the raw melodies and hillbilly twang of the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and to the sanctified abandon of gospel and the secular soul-venting of the blues.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
very nice E.
man, this is really depressin' me.
2 - Mac Diva
No, Charles boldly addressed one of his earliest loves, country and western music. In 1962, with his passion and arranging skills, he found the beautiful melodies and timeless emotion at the heart of "I Can't Stop Loving You" "Born to Lose," "You Don't Know Me," "Take These Chains From My Heart," and saw little or irony in scoring his biggest hits and having his broadest appeal come from the culture "across the tracks" music originating in white, Southern, rural America.
This is a common misconception. The South of Charles' youth would not have been all that segregated residentially. There were other ways to maintain social control of blacks. Heck, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where some of my relatives live, blacks and whites lived a street or a block away from each other 25 and 30 years ago. Still often do.
Nor was country music ever really 'white.' It often relies on the banjo, an instrument brought from the Senegal by slaves. There are also other African influences on country music.
But, considering your influences, I should not be surprised you say things like this.
3 - Al Barger
Ah, don't be depressed Mark. Ray started out pretty rough, but he ended up having a highly accomplished and rewarding life. The physical ailments and all his other earthly burdens are gone.
Personally, I'm celebrating Ray's crossing tonight with his most kickass version of "I'm Movin' On" from the Genius and Soul box set. Sweet.
4 - Shark
Ray Charles was a steppin-fetchit, a groveling oreo who kowtowed to cracker audiences, producers, and promoters, sacrificing his integrity and racial identity for a pat on the head from southern, white, neo-confederate racists whose inherent discriminatory fears were assuaged by the shuffling, tap-dancing continuation of the image of a friendly blackfaced "minstrel man" from the late 19th century. He was an embarrassment to the proud, revolutionary afro-centric intellectual freedom fighters world-wide.
(Just kiddin', kids! I thought I'd beat MacDemon to the punch, but it looks like I'm already too late!!!)
Ray was a god, and if there is an American who deserves a spot on Mt. Rushmore -- aw, to hell with Mt. Rushmore, put him on Mt. Olympus.
PS: Hope my favorite Ray Charles CD -- "Porgy & Bess" -- doesn't get me into trouble with the lynchin' lady from Oregan. I know it's probably "racist" in her book, but ya know...
---WHAT ISN'T?
5 - Shark
Great article, Eric. I think you were correct to focus on RC's incredible range re. American styles. He was able to do it all with charm, grace, style, heart, and soul.
Are we gettin' down to the last of the great (living) ++DISTINCT++ american vocalists?
Not many left, eh?
6 - Antfreeze
Nice article Eric. Another bummer. I listened to "What'd I say" over and over last night. Man, that little rolling piano boogie thing is so sweet. Did Ray invent that? That's about eight careers worth of coolness right there in one song. Hope there's a piano up there for him to play, it's hard to boogie on a harp but I bet Ray can do it.
7 - Eric Olsen
Thanks for the kind words - much appreciated - the music is what will endure so that was an easy choice.
MD, I'm not sure exactly what you are disagreeing with, but
1) the South of 70 years ago is not the same as the South of 25 or 30 years ago, with legistated Jim Crow, the Depression bringing out the worst in everyone (as economic hard times do, intensifying between "competitors" of similar socioeconomic standing, making race a very convenient barrier)
2) Ray Charles didn't play the banjo that I am aware of, and he certainly didn't play it on his country hits
3) There was musical interaction, certainly, between the black blues/jazz and white country and western, but their origins are very distinct, and the banjo fell out of favor with black musicians precisely because it was adopted by white c&w/bluegrass musicians.
So, the point remains that it was very unusual for a black man to perform c&w music in 1962, just as it is today (who can you name besides Charley Pride?) and required a specific decision to do so - it didn't just "happen" naturally, just as earlier Charles had made the conscious decision to blend R&B and gospel together, which was equally bold and unusual for the time, which was my point all along.
8 - Tom Johnson
Country music doesn't "rely" on the banjo - bluegrass certainly does, however. The guitar is more what country relies on. I've always heard that country formed more out of Irish folk tunes - and if you listen to early country you can hear some similarities.
Anyway, on subject, I was tremendously saddened to hear of Ray's death. He's always been one of those musical figures who hovered over me in my life, even while I don't actually own any of his albums (and yes, I wish to correct that.) "Georgia On My Mind" was one of my favorite songs as a kid (first heard via Willie Nelson's version) and I vividly remember requesting it be played during one of my birthdays at Organ Stop Pizza. When the organist began playing, an odd kid, the son of a family friend, awkwardly cavorted on the stage area in front of him with worryingly large loops of something that resembled dancing, but had absolutely nothing to do with rhythm. You can't pick your memories, unforunately, so this is what I associate with Ray Charles to this day. Brains are weird.
9 - ClubhouseCancer
Ray's attempt to follow up "What'd I Say" was "Sticks and Stones," which has, if possible, an even more infectious boogie/swing riff in the same vein as "WIS." It lacks the call-and-response section that made "WIS" such a massive hit, but considered together, there are, paraphrasing Antifreeze, about 35 careers worth of cool there.
BTW, the best Ray box sets are The Atlantic Years, which hasn't a bad measure, much less a bad track, and the big Genius + Soul five-CD set, which spans his whole career and is hence has even more great stuff, but also some not-so-vital 70's and 80's recordings.
In addition to his pop/rock stuff, Ray also played real, straight-ahead jazz, and I think his work there is underrated.
A quick overview:
The Great Ray Charles and The Genius After Hours both come from the same 1957 sessions, and present Ray as leader of a pretty standard small group. Ray's longtime crony, tenorman David "Fathead" Newman, gets a good workout, as does the great Oscar Pettiford on bass.
I would have loved to see what Ray could do in a real, chugging, Blue-Note style post-bop, hard bop band after hearing his bluesy bop runs here, but he never really did much small-group jazz after this.
There's a double CD of Ray's work with Milt Jackson (some of this stuff came out at the time as Soul Brothers and Soul Meeting) that is a huge fave of mine. Ray plays alto sax on much of it, and reveals a cool, Bird-influenced bop style.
Two great organ dates are also collected on one disk (Genius + Soul= Jazz and My Kind of Jazz) and are essential. For those who love Jimmy Smith-type organ trio stuff from the period, these two records will fit right in, except that Ray adds amazing m odernist horn charts to the mix, too.
For vocal jazz, his two duet albums with Betty Carter are nice, but a little soupy for me in the arrangements and sort of toothless in the delivery — I like other Betty Carter better, but it seems uncharitable to grouse about music that so many people love, so I'll stop. These two are on one disc now, too.
10 - ClubhouseCancer
And for what it's worth, Modern Sounds in Country Wetsern has never sounded much like country music to me. I think Ray took his favorite country tunes, arranged them in the prevailing strings-and-girl-vocals Nashville style, and then proceeded to perform them as soul or blues songs.
11 - ClubhouseCancer
Also, kudos to Eric on a nice piece.
12 - Eric Olsen
CC, lots of great info, thanks, my fave collection is the Genius & Soul set, which, while I agree there is some rather listless later stuff, there is some revelatory later material as well. I also like much of the '60s material (up to about '66) as much or more than the great '50s Atlantic gems.
I agree about Modern Sounds In Country and Western not "really" sounding country, but again that's kind of my main point: that he assimilated all of these styles and extruded something uniquely his.
And thanks for the compliment - I very much appreciate it.
13 - Mac Diva
He who makes errors and will not acknowledge them:
I didn't say Ray Charles played banjo. I said it is one of the proofs that country music is influenced by African music. Nor did I say segregation was not legislated in the South of 70 years ago. I said it was often not residential segregation. For example, people who lived on the same block had to go to different schools. As for blacks being driven out of playing country music in mixed settings, that was true of just about everything people of color did at the time. It doesn't mean black Southerners did not learn and play country music.
The information I am offering is from anthropology and history. I learned it in college and from reading some of the experts in those fields. What you are publishing is from unexamined, often prejudiced sources. (The cant that country music at least is free of the taint of Africa is a common claim of racists, organized and not.) You are free to rely on completely unread sources like Al Barger for your information, and, unfortunately, pass that misinformation on to others. I, however, prefer to actually know what I am talking about.
14 - Mac Diva
I will just repeat what I said on the earliest thread about Ray Charles' death at Blogcritics for the record.
Comment 5 posted by Mac Diva on June 10, 2004 04:49 PM:
Yes! A dead man who deserves our respect. I have a wall of framed candid photos of musicians in my little home office. Some of them set me back more than I could afford when I bought them. A picture of Ray Charles composing at the piano is central to the display. Rest in peace, R.C.
My criticism here is not remotely of Ray Charles nor do I agree with the racist picture Shark painted of him in his remarks above. My concern is that if you are going to write something sounding authoritative, you should have consulted some authorities and gotten the material right. A phone call to one or two people who teach African-American anthropology or history would have prevented those errors.
15 - Eric Olsen
All I can say at this point is I still do not see any error in the article, whose only reference to the subsequently much expounded upon sociological aspects of Ray paying country is that it was bold and that he didn't see any irony in playing hillbilly music, which regardless of what anyone says - and I did deep research on the subject of blacks in country, and early whites playing the blues for the Encyclopedia of Record Producers - which was only marginally influenced by African music, and definitely derives from Scots/Irish folk balladry, as Tom mentioned earlier.
I fail to see an "error," or even a particular difference of opinion regarding the contents of the original article - perhaps there is a difference of emphasis, but I can't imagine geting worked up over such a thing.
16 - Eric Olsen
Oh, and we certainly do not appear to have any difference at all in our appreciation of Ray charles, which is the actual matter at hand.
17 - Al Barger
Also Diva, it is TOTALLY unfair to describe me as "unread." I have read every issue of Playboy and every pamphlet the NRA ever put out.
Plus, I read one of Rush Limbaugh's books.
While I was listening to Ray, of course.
18 - Mac Diva
Al Barger said:
Plus, I read one of Rush Limbaugh's books.
Cheating on the memory of Ayn Rand, eh?
19 - bhw
lol Al....
20 - Jim Carruthers
Mac Diva rites:
Nor was country music ever really 'white.' It often relies on the banjo, an instrument brought from the Senegal by slaves. There are also other African influences on country music.
In that case hip-hop is Japanese since both the Technics turntable and Akai 9000 sampler are both from Japan, and USAians of the Bronx, Queens and Lon Guy Land persuasian merely appropriated the genre, along with ripping off Rick Springfield riffs, and the folk stylings of Scottish troupadour James Brown.
21 - BB
Even Paul McCartney admitted that often when he writes a crooning ballad, he will think of Ray Charles and ask himself how would Ray have done it.
That says a lot about the man. He crossed all racial boundaries and will always have a special reservation in my favorite music repertoire. I will sorely miss him. God speed Ray.
22 - K-la Fields
Great job Jamie Foxx you are a good actor GOD BLESS you.
23 - Eric Olsen
he was very well rewarded for his efforts: it doesn't get much better than Best Actor Oscar