Born September 23, 1930 Ray Charles(Ray Charles Robinson) – American singer, musician, composer, one of the world's most famous performers of soul, country, jazz and rhythm and blues music. Frank Sinatra called him “the only true genius in show business,” and singer Billy Joel said: “This may sound blasphemous, but I believe that Ray Charles was more important than . ...Who the hell has ever mixed so many styles together and made it work?!”
His real name was Ray Charles Robinson. One of the producers of Swingtime Records advised him to shorten his name, who saw in the guy rising star. At that time, the surname “Robinson” on the star Olympus of the United States was firmly occupied by champion boxer Ray Robinson (Ray “Sugar” Robinson), and in order to avoid confusion, it was decided to create the stage name “Ray Charles”. However, Ray's voice, talent and passion for music, which Ray was obsessed with, would have elevated him to the heights of fame under any name.
There were no musicians in the Robinson family, much less famous ones. Ray's parents (born in Albany, Georgia) were considered the poorest residents of the black community of the tiny village of Greenville in Florida, where the family soon moved. “We were at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the others... below us there was only the ground,” Charles recalled. The boy was 5 years old when his younger brother George began to drown in a tub of water before his eyes (their mother worked as a laundress). No matter how hard Ray tried, he could not save his brother - he was too heavy for him. This scene then haunted the musician all his life. A year later, Ray suddenly began to lose his sight, and by the age of 7 he was completely blind. The boy was saved by his mother, whom he idolized... and music. Aretha Robinson was strong woman– she didn’t lament, but acted: knowing that her son was about to go blind, she taught him the most necessary skills for a blind person, while Ray could still see. And she sent me to a boarding school for deaf and blind children. So he learned to read words and notes at the same time - using the Braille system. Here the guy mastered a bunch of instruments - trumpet, clarinet, organ, saxophone and piano. However, Ray became addicted to the latter much earlier: as a three-year-old boy, he endlessly ran to a nearby pharmacy, whose owner played the piano, and tried to imitate boogiewoogie.
Looking ahead, I will say that the cause of blindness Rhea Charles and it has not been fully established: one of the supposed diagnoses is glaucoma. It was rumored that many years later, in the 1980s, having become a wealthy man, the musician submitted an anonymous advertisement looking for a donor willing to donate one eye to him. However, the operation never took place - doctors considered it a pointless risk. Ray himself was quite ironic about his own blindness: he always shaved in front of the mirror, wore sunglasses, acted in films, drove a car, even piloted an airplane! But he never gave autographs - after all, the singer could not see what exactly was being given to him to sign (!); and he was extremely reluctant to talk to journalists. When Ray was once asked whether he felt unhappy because of his blindness, the musician was surprised: “Why? When you are blind, you probably lose about 1/99 of what life gives you. I know it is very important to see your children or admire the beauty of the moon. Okay, one percent off. But my life won’t stop because of this, will it?” Ray's friends claimed that they had never met a more independent person than this blind musician.
Since childhood, reading notes with his fingers and playing by ear, Charles trained his memory so much that he could easily compose arrangements without even touching the instrument. He considered Frederic Chopin, Jean Sibelius, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Art Tatum and Artie Shaw to be his musical teachers.
Even during his student years, Ray was known as the first musician of the school, where he performed with solo concerts and as part of the group “The Florida Playboys”. By the age of 17, having lost both parents, the guy decided to try his luck in the big city: putting the $600 he had saved in his pocket, Ray went to the other end of the continent - to Seattle.
Ray Charles 2 Ray Charles: darkness turned into light First, together with guitarist Gossady McGee, he founded the group “MacSon Trio”, and after some time began recording. His first hit, "Confession Blues" (1949), and the popular song "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951) were recorded on Swingtime Records. Then Charles signed a contract with the Atlantic record company: here he had much more creative freedom and experienced producers - Ahmed Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. It was under their leadership that Ray Charles began to move from a talented imitator of styles famous musicians before finding yours creative individuality. The single “Mess Around” (1953), the million-selling record with the song “The Things That I Used To Do” (recorded with bluesman Guitar Slim) and, finally, considered the first soul recording and reaching number one on the hit parade. the single “I Got a Woman” (1955) became milestones on the path of the future music legend of the 20th century. Working during these years mainly with gospel songs, with secular texts and blues ballads, Ray Charles creates a new fusion, electrifying the leisurely melancholic rhythms of religious hymns with energetic discharges of rhythm and blues. “Black” rock and roll owes a lot to this musician, who managed to captivate a huge audience of white listeners with traditional African music.
They say that “What'd I Say,” a landmark song of the soul style that incorporates rock, r&b, jazz and country, Ray composed during one of his performances: it was necessary to fill the time that he was obliged to play under his contract. It’s hard to say how many musicians, singers and composers “What’d I Say” later “started”, giving rise to new works. Subsequently, it was this incomprehensible flair and ability of Ray to penetrate into the essence of any style, the incredible freedom with which he mixed and fused styles and genres, ignoring their boundaries, determined his creative credo.
Charles was now moving in new directions: recording songs with the participation of major symphony orchestras, famous jazz musicians; turned to the country style and, having recorded the album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music”, achieved something incredible at that time for a black musician - he entered the “turnover” of this typically “white” style of music. The move to ABC Records not only elevated Ray to the category of one of the most highly paid musicians world of that time, but also significantly expanded creative freedom and opportunities. Surprise! Instead of dabbling in innovative experiments, the musician began recording pop songs close to the mainstream. Bigbands, string quartets, large choirs singing back - Ray Charles's new arrangements were sharply different from the chamber works of the Atlantic era. Having moved to the largest mansion in Beverly Hills, the musician now periodically records so-called “pop and jazz standards”: “Cry”, “ Over the Rainbow", "Cry me a river", "Makin" Whoopy" and others. At the same time, his hits "Unchain My Heart", "You Are My Sunshine". "Hit The Road Jack" were also released.
However, another song still became a symbol of the ABC period. "Georgia On My Mind" (a composition by Broadway classic Hodja Carmichael, originally dedicated to a girl named Georgia) was declared the Georgia state anthem on April 24, 1979, and Ray Charles performed it at the statehouse. 19 years before this event, the musician canceled his concert in the state - in protest against racial segregation (according to the laws of that time, black and white spectators had to sit separately during his concert). For many years, Charles spoke out against racism, supported and financed the activities of Martin Luther King.
In contrast to the rapidly rising musical career, Ray's personal life was quite turbulent. He tried drugs at the age of 17. From then on, until his arrest for heroin and marijuana possession in 1965 in Boston, the musician carried “this monkey on my back” (as he called his addiction to the potion). Ray underwent treatment at a Los Angeles clinic - and this saved him from a real prison sentence, which was replaced by a year of probation. He never returned to drugs, replacing them with the “Ray Charles Cocktail” - strong coffee with sugar and gin. “Sometimes I felt terrible, but as soon as I got on stage and the band started playing, I don’t know why, but it was like aspirin - you hurt, you take it and you don’t feel the pain anymore,” Ray recalled.
Relationships with women were also difficult. Two official marriages and 12 children from 9 women – short but powerful statistics. By the way, the musician bequeathed $1 million to each of his children.
“Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, were masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds." And rock'n'roll legend Billy Joel calls Charles "the owner of the most unique voice in pop music... He took squeals, screams, growls, moans and made music out of them."
Projects, concerts, performances around the world, recording new albums - Ray continued to work until his death from liver cancer in 2004. Thousands of fans said goodbye to the musician in the church, under the arches of which “Over the Rainbow” was played - a song chosen by Ray Charles himself.
And two months later, his latest album, “Genius Loves Company,” was released, which included songs performed together with many outstanding musicians. In 2005 - another album - “Genius & Friends”, in 2006 - “Ray Sings, Basie Swings”, etc. Ray Charles is “a pioneer who swept away the barriers between secular and spiritual styles, between white and black pop music”; singer, awarded 17 Grammy Awards and officially named a Los Angeles Treasure; the musician, whose star is installed on the Hollywood Boulevard of Fame, and whose bronze busts are in all the Halls of Fame (rock and roll, jazz, blues and country), continues the main work of his life - albeit from other worlds.
His music touched everyone. American conductor and trumpeter Quincy Jones called it “pain transformed into joy, darkness turned into light.” Ray Charles himself said simply:
“Music has been around for a very long time and will be here after me. I was just trying to leave my mark, to do something good in music.”
“The Eighth Wonder of the World”—that’s what famous producer Clarence Paul called the ten-year-old black boy after his first audition. At the age of 12, the young musician was recognized as a genius. But a few years earlier, the parents of little Stivland Hardaway Judkins did not even let him out of the house, fearing that the blind boy would not be able to fend for himself. Steve could not agree with the sentence of spending his entire life locked up.
Stevie Wonder, a legendary musician, was born in May 1950 in Michigan, USA. The boy was born premature, very tiny, with huge dark eyes. Many years later it turns out that in those first days of the baby’s life a fatal medical error, leading to complete blindness. At that time, doctors were confident that they were doing everything to treat a typical disease of premature babies - retinopathy. Retinopathy is a non-inflammatory lesion of the retina of the eyeball, which leads to a disorder of the blood supply to the retina. The cause of the disorder is underdevelopment of blood vessels. Fifty years ago, doctors knew only one way to combat retinopathy - supplying oxygen to the baby's incubator. Stevie also received this treatment, but a large dose of oxygen only worsened the process of developing blindness. Today negative influence This treatment method has already been proven. Newborn Stevie didn't stand a chance.
Stevie spent all of his early childhood at home. The baby's mother did not want him to even just play with other children, because they could offend her blind boy. At the age of 4, Stevie’s parents separated, the boy remained with his mother, who intensively began raising her son. She taught him to read using not only Braille, but also a regular children's primer. Stevie's fingers had such increased sensitivity that he could easily distinguish the outlines of letters even in ordinary printing ink. Stevie became toys musical instruments, which his mother brought him so that he would not get bored locked up. Harmonica and drum replaced the boy soccer ball and tags. But the piano turned out to be the kid’s real passion. According to Wonder, as a child it was the combination of tactile sensations and sound production that aroused his interest. The child’s idol was the black musician Ray Charles, whose blindness did not prevent him from receiving 17 Grammys and getting into the halls of fame of rock and roll, jazz, country and blues. Stevie chose his path and started it in the local church choir.
Fame came to Stevie very early and very unexpectedly. Young talent They quickly noticed that Stevie was invited to audition for the producer of the then popular group “The Miracles”. The eleven-year-old blind musician impressed the producer so much that he immediately signed him to the first contract in the boy’s life. “Stevie is the eighth wonder of the world!” - said the enthusiastic producer. This pseudonym remained with the boy for the rest of his life: Stevie the Miracle, Stevie Wonder.
Stevie was barely 11 years old when his first record was released. She did not gain much popularity. But 2 years later, Stevie’s name thundered throughout the country - the song “Fingertips”, where Stevie acted as a vocalist and performer on bongos and harmonica, became a hit on the American charts. A blind black boy was recognized as a genius. You could forget about life locked up in your parents' house.
An amazing singing range of four octaves, a complex vocal technique, mastery of the piano, harmonica, drums, all types of keyboards and clarinet - it seemed that Stevie Wonder had absorbed a dozen of them at once. musical geniuses. But the young musician was no longer going to stop there. He wanted people to simply forget about his physical disability; no one should even think about his blindness. In 1964, Stevie made his film debut: Wonder played himself in the film. Less than six months later he is back on the screens.
Stevie is no longer little boy, no longer need to be afraid that someone will offend him. The matured “miracle” begins to work as a composer in a record company, he writes songs for his colleagues, and at the same time works on his own album of soul-jazz compositions. Soul singer, composer, arranger, drummer, pianist - by the age of 20, Stevie Wonder is already firmly on his own two feet, he “sees” his path and follows it.
Personal life is also going well. Steve marries songwriter Sairita Wright. A creative tandem becomes a family. The young wife helps Wonder produce his next album, which is destined to become a cult, conceptual album, opening a new page in the work of the miracle singer. For the first time, the singer became a full-fledged producer of his own album - he himself acted as a composer and arranger. Today, years later, this album is considered a classic of soul music. On his 21st birthday, Stevie Wonder received his first million dollars, according to his contract.
Discoveries, review of the film "Ray" by Taylor Heckford January 14th, 2010
About the film
A fairly ordinary biopic about a musician, a genius and just a strong person. Americans love legends. Create, read and listen. This is their undying spirit of patriotism. Moreover, Ray Charles Robinson deserves such attention.
I have known about the film since 2004. Still studying. It was not possible to view it. But the footage about the blind pianist stuck in my memory. From time to time, images popped into my head, but the film slipped out of my sight.
Well, here it is 2010. I devote a lot of time to cinema. So "Ray" couldn't pass by. Moreover, there was an inexplicable love for American musical biopics (“Dreamgirls”, “Cadillac Records”).
Music, biography, women, drugs, music, drugs, women... music again. Besides music, of course, there is the genius of a blind black man. What else can you write about a biopic that is made well and according to the canons. It's simply impossible to talk bad about a film like this.
Discoveries
First:
The main discovery, of course after the wonderful music, is Jamie Foxx. I always looked at him as a good, stately extra. Tall, quite handsome, and of course convenient for political correctness. Immediately he surprised me.
Fox got into the role so much that you won’t immediately understand who’s in the photo - Ray Charles Robinson or stills from the film . Gait, look, lip... Cool actor who played a great man. It's wonderful and wonderful.
Well, Oscars are not given out just like that.
Second:
Very simple and beautiful. The song and its birth:
"Hit The Road Jack"("Get Out, Jack") is a rhythm and blues song written and performed in 1961 by Ray Charles. Female vocals belongs to Margie Hendricks, Charles's common-law wife and mother of his child.
The song is built on the humorous dialogue of a woman who reproaches her man for not having a penny to his name and demands that he pack his things and leave her house, and the responses of a man who accuses the woman of being grumpy and promises to make up for lost time.
For two weeks, from October 9, 1961, Charles' single topped the Billboard Hot 100. This is one of the few Charles songs that was included in the repertoire of Soviet jazz orchestras.
A little aboutRay Charles Robinson
Ray Charles (full name Ray Charles Robinson, English Ray Charles Robinson; September 23 - June 10 ) - American musician, author of more than 70 studio albums, one of the world's most famous performers of music in the styles of soul, jazz and rhythm and blues. He was awarded 17 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll, Jazz, Country and Blues Halls of Fame, the Georgia Hall of Fame, and his recordings were included in the Library of Congress.
Frank Sinatra called Ray "the only true genius in show business." And in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Ray Charles number 10 on its "Immortals List": the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and number 2 on its "100" list. best vocalists of all times." His song What’d I say was awarded 10th place in the “500” rating best songs of all times" of the same magazine.
OST playlist:
There are more than seventy albums in the Ray Charles archive
Ray Charles Robinson is a blind jazz musician whose productivity can be the envy of many modern pop stars. More than seventy albums to his credit speak for themselves.
You can say that perhaps this is one of those very cases where quantity is trying to compensate for a lack of quality. But have you heard of such a musician as Frank Sinatra? Personally, he spoke of Ray Robinson as the only genius in the world of show business. His song What’d I say was in fifth place on the list of the best songs of all time. Do you know her? Yes, you probably heard it, but you didn’t even know who was performing it, not to mention what it was called. It is perceived as one of the most killer rock and roll standards!
IN modern world he is one of the key figures in the development of world show business. And although symbolic lists of the most best musicians twentieth century are usually of a very superficial nature, he falls into them with enviable frequency.
Well, haven't you heard? No problem, we'll fix it all now.
I myself first became acquainted with the biography of this extraordinary artist when I watched the film “Ray”. This is an excellent biographical film that quite accurately and dispassionately describes a significant part of the life of a popular musician.
Personally, the film gave me conflicting feelings. How honest was he? Don't know. But after watching, you don’t get the impression of Ray Charles as some kind of sanctimonious saint or a show business offspring mired in vices.
In short, it's fun, cool, with a hint of deep melancholy and rock 'n' roll fervor. I recommend watching! And for fans of Ray, this film is a must-see.
So let's try to consider what kind of person he was.
So, let's start in order:
Born, raised, died... not all at once. Albany, Georgia is the birthplace of Ray Charles. Charles's family was not just poor. She was unusually poor, even by black standards. As the musician himself later said: “Below us was only the earth.”
When he was only a few months old, the family moved to South Florida, to the village of Greenville. Having abandoned Ray and his younger brother George, his father left the family and went off into the wild.
When Ray was five years old, an incident occurred that is described in some detail in the film. His younger brother accidentally fell into a tub of water and could not get out. Ray tried to help him get out of there, but he didn't have enough strength. And his younger brother died.
There are suggestions that it was because of the shock he suffered that Ray began to gradually lose his sight until he became completely blind at the age of seven. See Ray said that no one knows why he became blind. Perhaps this was a consequence of the illness he had suffered. When the musician became famous, he tried to acquire sight. He even advertised for someone to donate one eye to him, but doctors refused to perform the operation, considering it too risky and pointless.
As a child, he began attending a school for the blind, where he learned Braille. In addition, from the age of three he began to learn to play the piano, and his musical talent also began to manifest itself in the Baptist choir. But when he was only fifteen years old, his mother died, and a couple of years later his father died.
How it all started
When Ray finished school, he became involved in many musical projects. At that time he mainly played jazz and country music. As befits young musicians, he drew his inspiration from other famous jazz musicians, such as Artie Shaw. His first band was called The Florida Playboys.
When he was seventeen years old, he collected six hundred dollars and went to Seattle, where he soon met guitarist Gossady McGee, with whom he began to play and founded a band. They first recorded on Swingtime Records. He also collaborated with Fullson when he released his first hit. It's called Confession Blues. Then he released the famous Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand and moved to the Atlantic records label. He just needed high degree creative freedom.
Ray's first wife was Eileen Williams, whom he married on July 31, 1951. Their marriage lasted only a year, after which they divorced. Later he married Della Beatriz, this happened in 1956 and this marriage lasted longer, until the year 77. By the way, the film does not say a word about his first wife, but the leitmotif is the story of his life with his second wife.
In total, Ray had twelve children, but he gave birth to only three (in the biblical sense) in marriage. But let's leave the old dirty linen of the deceased and return to his bright and pure creativity.
On his new Atlantic label, he was encouraged to find his own unique sound. Which he did with all the passion of which he was capable. In fifty-three he recorded his famous single Mess Around. Then, together with guitarist Guitar Slean, he recorded the single The Things That I Used To Do.
When did he write the song I Got a Woman in 1955? , it reached number one on the charts. It is believed that this is the first soul recording. Ray mostly played music that was half gospel and the rest blues ballads. It turns out that Ray Charles was one of those who popularized the original black music among the population.
History of the composition What'd I Say
In the Ray Charles in Person record you can hear the same characteristic features, which were inherent early creativity Ray Charles. This album was recorded quite unusually for those years. This was not a studio recording, but a concert performance. At the same time, he played What’d I Say, which became one of his most recognizable compositions. They say it was just an improvisation during a rehearsal before a concert. But it was she who had the greatest influence on the world of rock and roll at one time.
Charles himself told the story of the creation of this song as follows: he was just playing last song from his program called The Night Time. It was in a nightclub in Milwaukee. When he finished playing, the club administrator confronted him with the fact that he had to lose another 12 minutes. And then he decided to improvise. And he played for all twelve minutes. The public was delighted, although the recording studio later refused to release it, citing the fact that it was too long.
Then the WOAK radio station recorded it and included it in the author’s album. The song instantly became a hit. When Atlantic Records finally gave up, the song was split into two parts. Then many more popular performers made cover versions of it. As Paul McCartney said, this composition gave him a huge impetus for creativity.
Style development
Soon, Ray Charles continued to develop his style, going beyond the boundaries of gospel combined with blues, and began recording with major orchestras. It was then that he wrote his first country song. He received a Grammy for the blues song Let the Good Time Roll. In it he demonstrated a voice of rare strength and expression.
When Ray moved to ABC Records, he signed such a fantastic contract that made him one of the highest paid musicians of his time. He moved to Beverly Hills, where he purchased the largest mansion in the area. There he lived until his death, which at that time was still many, many years away.
His work at ABC was distinctive character. On the one hand, he also received more freedom, and on the other hand, he stopped participating in experimental projects and began writing music closer to the mainstream. He had a choir as backing singer, and a big band and string orchestras as accompaniment.
This created a dramatically different sound. In the Atlantic he wrote almost chamber music, and at ABC he began producing orchestral jazz standards. At the same time, the musician’s repertoire simply stunned the imagination with its diversity and volume. At the same time he wrote his famous Hit The Road Jack. More precisely, it is written by Percy Mailfield; before recording, the backing singer told Ray that she was pregnant with his child. The musician was far from delighted, and this mixture of rage and anguish, sounding in the song that we now know, was somehow... completely natural.
And here is an excerpt from the film:
Georgia on My Mind has been recorded by many musicians. Among them were Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Ray Charles. It was his business card ABC times. Its author, Hog Carmichael, dedicated it to a girl named Georgia, but a little later it became the anthem of the state of Georgia. But there was a girl before, so let the right associations arise for you!
But one way or another, Ray performed Georgia on My Mind in the Statehouse. And, in fact, it entered the circulation of country music. For a black musician, this was simply unimaginable success. And in general, Ray has always opposed racism. Once he even canceled a concert in Georgia because black and white listeners had to sit separately. This deeply outraged him.
Drugs
This idyll lasted until he was 65, when he was arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin. The musician has been dependent on these two “happy drugs” for more than twenty years, that is, almost his entire life. adult life. Drugs had been found on him before, but so far Ray had managed to get away without being arrested. The first time the police did not have a search warrant and the case was not pursued, the second time he agreed to drug addiction treatment, and the third time he had to go to prison.
He himself saw little of himself as a drug addict. It was only later, during his imprisonment, that he had to quit drugs, but until then he took them like aspirin. That is, in real life he understood how terrible his situation was, and when he went on stage, he began to perceive them as aspirin. That is, you feel bad - and you start taking medicine to relieve the pain.
This “drug addict” part of his life is shown very clearly in the film “Ray”
But what happened next is simply interesting. For example, having given up drugs, he did not write anything outstanding anymore. But he did fantastic covers. But he no longer had his masterpieces. Coincidence? Hardly. The fact is that these drugs, when used, replace part of the natural hormones secreted by the brain, and when the patient stops taking the “medicines,” he justifiably loses inspiration and simply becomes depressed.
Additionally, after cleansing his lifestyle, Ray Charles also changed his musical style. He became even closer to the mainstream. So after the seventies they began to perceive him far less clearly. Personally, I remember the story with bodybuilders: everyone condemns their passion for steroids and other experiments on their own bodies, but on the other hand, only steroid musclemen are printed on posters. C'est la vie.
He began to record a lot of casual material, so his work during this period began to seem more monotonous. His most notable song of that time was America the Beautiful. Then this song was included in The Message for People, which became the musician’s first politically charged album.
In those years, he no longer played the classical piano, but the piano, which made the sound of his albums in the seventies especially stand out against the background of other years.
Around this time, Ray began to actively experiment with synthesizers. He often imitated other instruments with them a lot, and his keyboard solos took on a completely new flavor. It started to sound more like an electric guitar solo. This was especially evident in the way he handled the pitch wheel, which in the nineties he began to do simply to perfection.
Mature years
Usually, in adulthood, a musician’s audience begins to shift somewhat... more precisely, it does not shift, it remains in its generation, only the age of the listeners changes - they grow old. But Ray Charles managed to get a youth audience. This became especially obvious after the Friendship album.
He also performed at Reagan’s inauguration, which was the reason for evil tongues: they began to claim that Ray had cast a shadow on his reputation. The fact is that Ray was a Democrat, but Reagan was a Republican. Therefore, Ray agreed to perform only for a staggering fee of one hundred thousand dollars. Then his agent commented on it this way: “For that kind of money, we would agree to speak at a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan.”
In the early nineties, Ray Charles began performing in many musical projects, including classical gospel with the London Orchestra as part of a charity event.
All of Charles's albums until the last became popular. On April 30, 2004, he gave a concert for the last time. But his recordings were released even after his death.
Ray Charles (full real name Raymond Charles Robinson) is an outstanding musician who has become a true legend for all connoisseurs of blues, jazz and soul music. His compositions captivate and fascinate, his amazing voice cannot be forgotten.“I won't live forever. I'm smart enough to understand this. It’s not a matter of how long I will live, the only question is how beautiful my life will be.”
That is why our today's hero has remained the standard for many, many musicians on our planet for many years in a row, as well as the number one star for all connoisseurs of quality music.
Early years, childhood and family of Ray Charles
Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany, located in central Georgia. His family was very poor, and therefore from the very beginning early years great musician accustomed to lack of money and constant deprivation. Ray's father, Bailey Robinson, abandoned the family, leaving his two sons in the care of their mother and grandmother. After this, the unlucky father practically did not take part in the lives of his children, appearing in their house once a year at most.At the age of five, another serious shock occurred in the life of little Ray Charles. While swimming in a tub, his younger brother George drowned. The child died right before the eyes of the future musician. Five-year-old Ray tried to help his brother, but was unable to pull him out of the deep tub.
This event shocked our today’s hero so much that very soon he began to experience vision problems. By the age of seven, Ray Charles was completely blind. Subsequently, the version about psychological nature The musician's blindness was the most popular among all his fans.
However, many years later, American doctors who examined the musician put forward the version that the loss of vision occurred as a result of glaucoma.
Returning to the topic of the outstanding master’s childhood, we note that the turmoil in the musician’s life did not end there. Already in 1945, the singer lost his mother, thus remaining in the care of his elderly grandmother.
Perhaps it was a series of life blows that laid the foundations for the famous musical style Ray Charles. After all, his music always contained a lot of melancholy and very little joy...
Musical career of singer Ray Charles
Show interest in music lessons our today's hero started back in early age. While studying at a specialized school in the city of St. Augustine, the talented guy not only quickly mastered the Braille alphabet, but also learned to play the trombone, saxophone, piano, organ and some other instruments perfectly.Ray Charles. One of the most popular songs.
It was from this moment that his passion for music began. After all, there was essentially nothing else in his life.
At the age of seventeen, our today's hero moved to the large and vibrant Seattle, which at that time was considered the American capital instrumental music. Here such trends as soul, blues and jazz were especially popular. That’s why Ray Charles chose Washington State to continue his musical career.
In Seattle, our today's hero founded his first musical ensemble and soon it became quite popular in the northern United States. Famous performer Lowell Fulson invited him to work together. Subsequently, representatives of well-known record companies also began to approach Ray Charles with offers of long-term cooperation.
Thus, in 1949, our today’s hero recorded his first full-scale hit, “Confession Blues,” which very soon began to be heard even on federal radio stations in America. From that moment on, Ray Charles began to frequently tour various cities in the United States, giving small concerts and recording performances for national television.
Ray Charles - Confession Blues
In 1953, the talented black singer recorded the singles “It Should Have Been Me” and “Mess Around,” which three years later formed the basis of his first solo album, “The Great Ray Charles.”
Throughout his career, our today's hero has released more than a hundred (!) albums, as well as official recordings of concert performances. The geography of his tours stretches from the USA to Japan and from Germany to Russia. Many of his compositions - such as "Hit The Road Jack", "You Are My Sunshine", "Unchain My Heart" - became immortal hits. This is why Ray Charles' influence on world music very difficult to overestimate. As recognized figures in the scene note, it was the music of Ray Charles that laid the foundations for such trends as modern jazz, blues and even rock and R&B.
Among Ray Charles's awards is his own own star on the Walk of Fame, as well as 17 Grammy Awards, the Order of Arts and Letters, the National Medal of Arts and some other awards. Currently, the name of the great musician is listed simultaneously in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in the Jazz Hall of Fame. Several streets in the United States and even an entire post office are named after Ray Charles.
The last years of Ray Charles' life
IN recent years Throughout his life, the artist was very ill. In 2002, he began to show symptoms characteristic of liver cancer. At some point, the great musician lost the ability to walk. He managed to speak with great difficulty. However, even despite this, before last days During his life, Ray Charles regularly worked in the studio, recording new tunes and performing keyboard parts for new compositions. 
On June 10, 2004, the outstanding master of music died at his home in Beverly Hills. Two months after his death, his final album, Genius Loves Company, was officially released in the United States. At the farewell concert, the musician’s songs were performed by BB King, Elton John, Van Morrison and many others. outstanding musicians, who considered themselves friends and followers of Ray Charles.
Personal life of Ray Charles
Despite the fact that the musician was married only twice, he had many mistresses in his life. Thus, it is known for certain that the mothers of his twelve children (!) are nine (!) different women. Shortly before his death, our today's hero gave each of them one million dollars as a last gift.The musician spent the last years of his life with a woman named Norma Pinella
