Ray Charles

The world of music consists of various genres, yet Ray Charles proves himself as the one who is able to convert them all into a soulful tunes despite his physical weakness. As Thomas Thompson had written of him: "He has drawn from each of these musical streams and made a river which he alone can navigate." That opinion appeared to be true, as Ray possessed such a great talent within his soul to skillfully explore beyond musical boundaries, developing a new form of black pop music known as "soul." Therefore, it is undeniably appropriate to regard Ray Charles in the way of Frank Sinatra's praise, honoring him as "the only genius in the business." He was indeed an exceptional musician whose composition has touched both sides of white and black American communities, bringing a unity and harmony in the tunes he created. Probably it was his immense love for music that enabled him to arrange such great and terrific tunes, as he once said: "Music was one of my parts...like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water." It is unquestionable that in ... this fast-changing world, he remains constant as a music legend, giving a large merit in shaping the sound of rhythm and blues as well as being a pioneering pianist and soul singer. He has become a prominent role model in music industry who has drawn a lot of followers ever since, such as James Brown, "Everly Brothers", Billy Joel, James Ingram, "The Animals", and many more. Born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, as the first son, he was named Ray Charles Robinson by his parents, Baily and Aretha Robinson. During that time, Robinson family was among the people who lived in poverty as America was experiencing the Great Depression. Moving to Greenville, Florida, when Ray was still an infant, did not bring any improvement, even it got worse for the father soon abandoned the family. Despite the terrible condition, Ray enjoyed his early childhood, living with his loving mother and younger brother, George Robinson, while deeply attracted to music since he was merely 3 years old, as he admitted: "Whenever I heard a note, I was already trying to involve myself with it." However, his happiness was interrupted by the tragic death of his dear brother in 1935.Beginning from that incident, he gradually lost his sight before became totally blind at age 7. George's death and the complete blindness of his eyes apparently could not stop Ray's love for music; instead it grew deeper, taking roots into his heart. Encouraged by his supportive mother, he entered St. Augustine's School for the Deaf and the Blind in 1937, learning to read Braille as well as studying music composition and playing various instruments. This was when he came to a desire to write music of his own, wanting to feel the excitement of hearing his compositions played back for him. The death of his beloved mother when he was nearly fifteen years old made him shocked, but eventually he kept going on, making his own way. He started to work as a musician in Jacksonville, Florida, where he was also taken care by her mother's friend named Lena May Thompson. Tired of working for someone else's band, Ray decided to move to Seattle in 1947. While joining an audition, he was invited to perform as a trio at Elk's Club together with Gosady McGee and Milt Jarret. Adapted the smooth pop/R&B style of Nat "King" Cole and Charlie Brown, ... The "McSon Trio," so they called it, turned out to be the first black group to have a sponsored TV show in the Pasific Northwest in 1948. Together with the trio, Ray made a major R&B hit through the song entitled "Confession Blues" in 1949. During this time, he shortened his name as Ray Charles in order to differentiate his identity from famous boxer "Sugar" Ray Robinson. After playing at Elk's Club for about five weekends, the trio was hired to perform at another club called Rocking Chair where Ray met Jack Lauderdale of Swingtime Records for the first time. Getting impressed with his talent, Lauderdale offered Ray to sign a contract, so he left Seattle for L.A. to do his recording of "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951). This single was well received and became a hit, especially among black community, entering the U.S. R&B Chart for the first time. After the release of the song, Ray held a tour with blues artist Lowell Fulson before Atlantic Records purchased his contract from Swingtime Records in 1952. In the same year, he made his Atlantic debut single "Roll With Me Baby," followed by "It Should Have Been Me" (1954) ...which turned out to be a 7th rank hit single on R&B chart. Meanwhile, he also worked with Guitar Slim in New Orleans, arranging and playing piano in Slim's smash hit, "The Things That I Used to Do." This made him reached commercial success and his name became fairly well known. Making a great change in his professional career in music, Ray finally stepped out from his imitation of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown, thus created his genuine style that proved extremely successful through "I've Got A Woman" (1955). In this particular composition, Ray picked up elements of gospel music, adapting them to R&B tunes with secular lyrics, strengthening the song through an intensified emotion of vocal, supported by the piano and horn section. The result was sensational for the single reached the highest position at Billboard's Black Singles Chart. Planting down this typical unique style of him to characterize his music, Ray became more inventive and kept producing other hit singles that struck high positions on the chart during the year of 1955-1956, such as "A Fool for You" (#1), "Drown in My Own Tears" (#1), "Hallelujah I Love Her So" (#5), and "Mary Ann"(#1). All these singles ... were collected into a self-titled album, which was released in 1957.