Showing posts with label Ray Charles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ray Charles. Show all posts

April 03, 2023

Ray Charles – Live 1958-1959 (1987 rel.)

→ Get the album at the usual place...


What'd Ray say
This is quite an interesting album (1) for people who, like me, are not so familiar with Ray Charles Robinson (1930-2004) except for his most famous hits like “The Right Time”, “I Got A Woman” and above all the iconic “What'd I Say” and “Georgia On My Mind” (not on this album because he hadn't recorded it yet; his did in 1960).

For example I didn't know he had played pure jazz like on the four “big band” instrumentals tracks filled with saxes and trumpets that open the album : “Hot Rod”, “Blues Waltz”, the excellent mischievous mambo-flavored “In A Little Spanish Town”, or the more classic jazz piece “Sherry” where he appears a skilled jazz pianist. Lesser did I know that he also played alto sax as he does here on “Hot Rod” & “The Spirit Free”!