The Story of Ray Charles (1930-2004)
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The Story of Ray Charles (1930-2004) |
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| Ray
Charles photo by Jef Jaisun |
The term “genius” may be too loosely applied to many musicians today. But, perhaps more than any one entertainer over the past 60 years, Ray Charles made an impression on music hardly rivaled by anyone that certainly deserved the use of the term. Crossing multiple genres, he found success within each. Not only crossing genres, but racial lines as well. His life has been heralded with numerous achievements and awards. There is scarcely anybody whose life has not been touched by the Genius that was Ray Charles.
Born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930, the eldest son of Bailey & Aretha Robinson. The family moved three months later to Greenville, Florida, where Bailey took work as a mechanic and Aretha stacked boards at the local sawmill, as well as taking in laundry to make ends meet.
Music had an early role in Ray’s life, as neighbor Wylie Pitman would allow the three-year-old to sit next to him while he practiced at his piano, with Ray pounding along on the keys. The sounds he heard played in the community were made up mostly of Blues, Gospel and Country/Western.
At the age of five, Ray suffered the first of many hard events in his life that would follow over the ensuing years. While rough-housing with his younger brother George, his sibling tripped into the large tub their mother used for laundry. At first Ray thought George was fooling around, but after he did not move for some time, he tried to pull his brother from the water. But, his clothing was soaked too thoroughly and Ray could not pull his weight out. He ran to his mother, who attempted to revive the child, but it was too late.
Soon afterward, Ray was diagnosed as having glaucoma and his mother was told her son would eventually lose his sight altogether. Though she only had a fourth grade education, she wisely began to prepare young Ray for the day he would no longer be able to see. She taught him how to find his way around and how to find things, all while trying to prolong the oncoming blindness by keeping him from sunlight as much as possible. When the day finally did come, Ray claimed that he was better prepared because of the efforts of his mother.
Ray was admitted to The St. Augustine School of the Blind and Deaf as a charity patient. While there he was taught how to read and write in Braille and studied mathematics, typing and basket-weaving. His love for music also followed him, but he was unable to take piano courses right away as the class was filled. Instead, he took up the clarinet, as he also loved the music of Jazz-man Artie Shaw. He also learned to play the alto saxophone before finally gaining a spot in the piano class. His studies in mathematics helped him to learn to compose music in his head and he also quickly began to learn to play by ear. The studies of the music department at St. Augustine’s was more directed toward Classical music, but Ray often found himself off practicing the Jazz and Blues he loved, much to the disappointment of his teachers. But, he couldn’t keep away from the sound.
Ray attended St. Augustine’s from 1937 until 1945, when one day, he was pulled from class and told he needed to make an emergency trip home. The school was afraid to tell him that his mother had died. It was the single most distressing event in Ray’s life, and he soon moved from the school to Jacksonville. At the age of 15, he began working with numerous bands throughout Florida, including musicians such as Henry Washington, Joe Ellison, Charley Brantley, and even a Hillbilly outfit called The Florida Playboys, with whom he learned to yodel.
Playing the Florida Chitlin’ Circuit did not appear to have much of a future for young Ray Charles Robinson, so he asked his friend Gosady McGee to find a spot on the map as far away from Florida as he could and that was where he would relocate. That place was Seattle, Washington. Ray had $500 to his name, so he and McGee took a five-day bus ride to Seattle, where they began to play in the city’s Red Light District. A talent contest found them a regular gig working at a bar called The Elks Club. They hooked up with another musician named Milt Jarret and formed a group called The McSon Trio, combining the names McGee (Mc) and Robinson (Son). They based their sound on the current renowned artists Nat “King” Cole and Charles Brown, whom Ray idolized. The trio became popular, releasing a hit regional single titled “Confession Blues” on the Downbeat label. They even found themselves with a fully-sponsored television show in 1948, the first black performers in the Northwest to do so.
One night, Ray filled in on a gig with the Bumps Blackwell Orchestra, where he met a young trumpet player named Quincy Jones. Jones wished to learn how to compose music, so Ray took him under his wing teaching him in his apartment on an electric piano he had recently purchased. It developed into a life-long friendship.
The McSon Trio was working as the house band at The Rocking Chair, a venue that doubled as a gambling house and music club, when Jack Lauderdale of Swingtime Records came in one night. Impressed with the band’s sound, he offered them a recording contract and the trio quickly moved to Los Angeles. Their first release on Swingtime was “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand” in 1950. It was successful with the black community and deciding to strike while the song was hot, the group was sent on a year-long tour with Bluesman Lowell Fulsom. It was at this time that Ray Charles Robinson decided to shorten his name to Ray Charles in order not to be confused with boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. The band released a second single titled “Kiss Me Baby,” before Ray ended up working with other artists, such as Guitar Slim and Ruth Brown, with whom Ray made his first appearance at the famed Apollo Theater.
In 1954, Ray worked in the studio with Guitar Slim, writing arrangements and playing piano. Out of that session came the song, “The Things That I Used To Do.” Released on the Specialty label, it became the biggest selling R&B number of the year.
Having seen the work of Ray Charles with the McSon Trio and Guitar Slim, Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime in 1952. The first release by Ray on their label was entitled, “It Should Have Been Me.” But it was the 1954 release of “I Got A Woman” that would forever place Ray’s name in the ranks of music history. Combining the sounds of Blues and Gospel, it became the first song ever to be termed as “Soul” music and climbed to the No. 1 position on the R&B charts. It was also the first of a long string of hits that Ray released for the Atlantic label, followed by such great works as “Drown In My Own Tears,” “Lonely Avenue,” “Hallelujah I Love Her So” and “A Fool For You.” In 1957, Ray accomplished something that was unheard of for the time when his single of “Swanee River” became the first R&B song to cross-over from the R&B charts into the Pop category. But, it was his tune, “What’d I Say,” two years later that would climb those charts all the way to No. 6. The song itself was banned from many radio stations as being too suggestive with the call-and-response moans of Ray and The Raelettes. But, Ray was now a star.
Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler claims that over his career, he has only worked with three true geniuses: Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. He states that in each case, “They brought something new to the table. Charles had this blasphemous idea of taking Gospel songs and putting the devil’s words to them.” And, it worked.
But, Atlantic Records didn’t seem to offer Ray much room to expand as he wished. Their focus seemed too much aimed at R&B music and he had much more to offer the world. He signed on with ABC-Paramount and over the next three years, his career continued to explode with songs like “Hit The Road Jack,” “Ruby,” “Unchain My Heart” and “Georgia On My Mind,” a 1931 composition by Hoagy Carmichael that Ray carried to his first No. 1 Pop chart hit, and it was named the state song of Georgia in 1979. The album “The Genius Hits The Road” also became his first No. 1 on the Album charts, with follow-ups, “The Genius Of Ray Charles” and “Genius + Soul = Jazz,” paving the way for four Grammy Awards in 1961 alone.
He further expanded his role in popular music by establishing Ray Charles Enterprises in 1962, opening offices and a studio in downtown Los Angeles. He began using full orchestras and vocal choruses in his music and surprised everybody by releasing the album “Modern Sounds In Country And Western Vol. 1.” The release crossed even more boundaries, producing three hit singles with “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Born To Lose” and “You Don’t Know Me.” The album spent 14 weeks in the No. 1 position and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” 10 weeks on the R&B charts as No. 1, winning the Grammy Award in 1963 for Song of the Year. The companion album, “Modern Sounds In Country And Western Vol. 2” came out a year later and also produced three more hits, “You Are My Sunshine,” “Take These Chains From My Heart” and “Your Cheating Heart.”
Ray Charles was living on top of the world, when he was arrested in the Boston Airport for drug possession in 1964. Facing a federal narcotics charge for carrying heroin and marijuana, he received a five-year suspended sentence. He checked himself into a California rehab center to clean-up his 17-year addiction to heroin. During the time of his rehab, the strangely prophetic tune, “Busted,” was released to high favor. When he finally did return to performing after his treatment period, Ray, tongue tightly in cheek, released the songs “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and “Let’s Go Get Stoned.” The latter written by the songwriting team of Ashford & Simpson, was his final No. 1 song on the R&B charts.
Following his rehabilitation, Ray continued to perform, but took more and more gigs in nightclubs as a revue act. He changed labels frequently over the years and found himself working in films, as both an actor (“Swinging Along,” “Ballad In Blue” and “The Blues Brothers”) and as a composer (“Cincinnati Kid,” “In The Heat Of The Night” and “Any Which Way You Can”). Hits still came from time-to-time, including the Country album “Friendship,” which featured Ray performing duets with top artists of the genre such as George Jones, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams, Jr. He played a major part in U.S.A. For Africa’s recording of “We Are The World” in 1985 and even became a cultural phenom with his “You’ve got the right one, baby, uh-huh” campaign for Diet Pepsi in the early 1990s. In 1993, Ray was awarded his twelth and final Grammy Award for “A Song For You.”
Throughout his career, Ray Charles’ impact on modern music can hardly be compared to anybody. The numerous awards he received attest to that. Some of these illustrious achievements include Lifetime Awards from The Blues Foundation, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, The Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, The Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Medal of Arts presented to him by President Bill Clinton, a medallion cast in his honor by the people of France and the one award he felt most proud of, Man of the Year given to him by the Beverly Hills chapter of the B’nai Brith.
Ray Charles had grown up within the confines of segregation. He was taught to respect it at the St. Augustine School. But, he was forever a voice for the rights of mankind. At a concert in Augusta, Georgia, in the heighth of the Civil Rights movement, Ray learned that his audience was being segregated with the black attendees confined to the balcony and the white members on the floor to the front of the stage. He told the promoter that he had no problem with segregation, but felt that his people should be in front of the stage rather than the white audience. He told the promoter that unless this was reversed, he refused to play and didn’t care if he was sued. He didn’t play, and he was sued. But, he earned the respect of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. from this and King would became one of Charles’ early benefactors. Years later, Charles would also refuse to perform in South Africa until the role of apartheid was abolished. He had a special relationship with the Jewish people of America, once stating that if ever, “someone besides a black ever sings the real gut-bucket Blues, it’ll be a Jew. We both know what it’s like to be someone else’s footstool.”
He continued to perform as long as he possibly could. He performed his 10,000th concert in Los Angeles on May 23, 2003. Almost a year later, he made his last public appearance, joining Clint Eastwood, on April 30, 2004, as the studios he opened in 1962 in Los Angeles were declared a historic landmark.
Ray Charles underwent hip replacement surgery in December 2003. While undergoing this treatment, it was discovered that he was also suffering from acute liver disease. It struck quickly as he fought the debilitating illness for several months, as his health rapidly declined. It was all kept low-profile from the public. Ray Charles died in his Beverly Hills home, in the presence of his family and manager Joe Adams, on June 10, 2004. Divorced twice, he was survived by 12 children, 20 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
Shadowed by the death of former President Ronald Reagan the previous week, whose state funeral demanded much of the public’s attention, Ray Charles’ funeral was broadcast over Public Radio the following week. Photo journalist Jef Jaisun perhaps said it best regarding the legacy of Ray Charles, “If there was ever a man who changed the course of history, it was Ray Charles. If there was ever the passing of a man that deserved hours and hours on the nightly news, front page photos around the world, pundits discussing his many irrefutable accomplishments, a National Day of Mourning and horse-drawn cortege through the streets of the nation’s capitol, it was a man whose like we shall never see again; The Great Ray Charles.”
Amen.
© 2003 Cascade Blues Association