From the Pages of the BluesNotes
Othar Turner
Written by Greg Johnson Monday, 29 June 2009 21:44
Fife and drum bands have their roots firmly planted in African music. Long traditions carried over by captured slaves, brought to American soil where their new owners attempted to quell the sound, especially in the South. They kept the music alive in their memories and passed them down through the generations. Various stringed and wind instruments can have their origins traced directly back to Africa. Drums in particular played a heavy part in tribal gatherings as people would use their polyrhythmic beats to communicate as well as to sing and dance along in a communal spirit.
The use of fifes and drums also have military backgrounds in the United States. They were used by both American and British forces during the Revolutionary War to announce cadence and marching techniques. During this time in American history, most African-Americans were denied the right to serve in conflict carrying arms. But many were permitted to participate in these musical outfits. In fact, even Thomas Jefferson had put together a fife and drum band from his own slave holdings. In other parts of the country, full brass bands were developed as the nation grew older.
At the conclusion of the Civil War, former slaves continued to perform these brands of music for a period, though the fife and drum styles began to dwindle. By the turn of the 20th century, the number of performers had decreased to the point where only a handful remained, working in limited regions of the country. You may be able to travel to Colonial Williamsburg to hear fife and drum music, but this in truth is mostly reenactments of how the music was played in the 18th century. For original, authentic fife and drum sounds, you must head to remote areas of Northern Mississippi, where the tradition has survived even to this day, creating a partial base for the development of the music now known as the Blues.
Just how long that tradition will survive is in question, though. Many of the modern day performers have recently departed this world for the hereafter and younger players are in short supply. Memories of Sid Hemphill and Napolian Strickland are starting to fade. Jessie Mae Hemphill, who carried on her grandfather's style, has been left incapacitated by a stroke and can no longer perform. And, most recently, African-rooted fife and drum music in America has taken its hardest blow, with the February 27th passing of Othar Turner.
Othar Turner lived in the small Mississippi community of Gravel Springs, located not too far from the nearby towns of Senatobia and Como, about an hour south of Memphis. He spent most of his life within these same few miles, working his farm and playing his music. He was born in Rankin County, Mississippi in 1908. His parents had separated prior to his birth and it wasn't until he was nearly four years old that he met his father. Othar always held an interest in music. As a young child he played the harmonica and would beat on a 50-gallon lard can for a drum.
He first heard the sound of a fife at age 16 from a neighbor named R.E. Williams and was enchanted from his very first listen. The neighbor gave Othar his first fife and the boy would practice it constantly. His mother disapproved and told him to stop, but Othar continued whenever she was away from home. When she discovered that he had kept up the fife, she broke the instrument. Othar had studied the fife so intently, he was able to remember where the finger-hole positioning was and began to make his own fifes from the cane he found near his home, using a fireplace poker to burn the holes. Othar continued creating his own homemade fifes throughout his entire life.
He had also heard the sounds of the fife and drum bands played at picnics and other social gatherings and eventually created his own band, known as The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band. He performed with Sid Hemphill and later with the younger Napolian Strickland, both of whom considered Turner the patriarch of the style. Still later, Othar's own family began to take part in his music, in particular, his daughter, Bernice, who played drums alongside her father.
Othar Turner had been playing his music for many years when music researcher Alan Lomax made his way through Northern Mississippi in the 1950s. While seeking guitarist Fred McDowell, Lomax chanced upon Turner and received directions from him on where to locate the Bluesman, unaware that he had just met one of the most authentic roots performers of the area.
Turner was eventually found by the music researchers in the early 1960s, though. He recorded tracks for an album titled, "Traveling Through The Jungle: Fife And Drum Bands Of The Deep South," released by George Mitchell in the latter part of that decade. He was also heard on the Arhoolie release, "Mississippi Delta Blues Jam In Memphis, Vol. 1." David Evans recorded Turner in 1969 for The Library of Congress and even Alan Lomax returned to record Turner in 1978 as part of his documentary "Land Where The Blues Began." Othar can also be heard on the 1980 German compilation, "Living Country Blues Anthology" series (recently reissued on Evidence Records), that also included his student Napolian Strickland.
Through these albums, Othar Turner's name began to circulate around the country and offers to work at various Blues and Folk festivals started to arrive. The first that he accepted was an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in the early 1970s. It was his first trip outside of Mississippi to perform. Other opportunities arose, including an appearance on the children's television show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." It is said that having watched Othar Turner on this program, a young Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars first took up an interest in music.
One tradition that Othar Turner started in the late 1950s, continued to occur up until his recent death was his annual Labor Day picnics. Originally this began as a neighborhood and family gathering, but soon spread to include the entire community. Eventually, word got out and interested music fans started to arrive from Memphis and then from all parts of the world. Best known for Othar's personally butchering and cooking a goat in an iron kettle every year, it was the source for Othar's first full-length solo recording's title, "Everybody Hollerin' Goat," on the Birdman label in 1998. That album was selected by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the five "Essential Records of the Decade." The parties would always conclude with The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band performing for its guests.
In 1992, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Othar Turner's lifelong commitment to the continuance of fife and drum music by honoring him with a National Heritage fellowship. This is the highest honor given to performers of traditional American music in this country.
In 1999, Birdman Records followed up the successful "Everybody Hollerin' Goat" album with "From Senegal To Senatobia." Produced by the renowned Jim Dickinson, who had also studied under Turner, it was a blend of African musicians with Othar and his band. The mix was incredible, showing just how tightly linked American and African music actually are.
Othar Turner's popularity continued throughout the 1990s and into the 21st Century. He appeared on the cover of Living Blues Magazine in 1999 and was nearly cast as the blind prophet in the highly successful Coen Brothers movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Most recently, Othar's song "Shimmie She Wobble" can be heard in the Martin Scorsese film, "Gangs Of New York."
In early February 2003, Othar Turner was hospitalized for pneumonia. He returned home, but died in Gravel Springs, Mississippi on February 27th at the age of 94. Sadly, his daughter Bernice, who had been living in a nursing home for some time suffering from cancer, died that same day. She was 48.
Funeral services were held for Othar and Bernice on Tuesday, March 4th in Como, Mississippi. A procession leading to the cemetery was led by the Rising Star and Fife Band, with 13 year-old Sharde Thomas, Othar's granddaughter, at its head playing the fife taught to her by her grandfather.
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Earl King
Written by Greg Johnson Monday, 29 June 2009 21:44
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| Earl King |
In the world of the Blues the name of “King” is highly respected. Most fans associate the surname with the obvious “Big Three,” Albert, B.B. and Freddie. But in New Orleans, the residents know there is a fourth that deserves his place alongside these three: Earl King.
Earl King was more than just a musician. He was a renaissance man. During his nearly five decade career, he wore many hats: guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, sideman, arranger and mentor. He was prolific in his output, perhaps only rivaled by Allen Toussaint for recognizable material. His songs have been covered by the likes of Fats Domino, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Meters, Johnny Adams, Professor Longhair and many more. And unlike many other artists of his generation, he profited from the royalties gained by those who covered his songs as he had wisely retained the copyrights to his work.
He was born in New Orleans as Earl Silas Johnson on February 6, 1934. Raised in the city’s Irish Channel neighborhood, his father was a Blues pianist who was a close acquaintance with the locally renowned Tuts Washington. But Earl’s father died when he was still quite young and he was raised in a single-parent home by his mother, a heavy-set woman known affectionately as “Big Chief.”
Earl’s musical life began in the family church. He participated in the choir singing Gospel. But one day while walking through the neighborhood he heard the guitar playing of Smiley Lewis emanating from a bar. The music enchanted him and he sought means to express his singing outside of the church.
Pianist Huey Smith heard the teenager sing and decided to hire him for his band. Needing another vocalist and musician, he convinced Earl to take up the guitar. The band began to work steadily at now legendary Crescent City clubs such as The Tiajuana and The Dew Drop Inn. Many of the city’s future R&B stars found their start in these clubs and it was the extraordinary guitarist Eddie Jones, better known as Guitar Slim, who captured Earl’s eye and ears. He began to style his own playing after Slim and became so adept at mimicking his playing, he was hired to fill in for the guitarist on several dates when Slim was hospitalized. But under the name of Guitar Slim to unsuspecting audiences.
In 1953, Earl earned the opportunity to record for the Savoy label. On June 1st, he laid the tracks to the song “Have You Gone Crazy,” with accompaniment by Huey Smith on piano and Lee Allen on saxophone. Though the song did not produce much fanfare, it was the beginning to a lifetime of recording and studio work.
The next year, Earl found himself in the studio again. This time for Art Rupe’s Specialty Records. He had three sessions for the label, which included a regional hit with the song “A Mother’s Love,” a song that very closely had the flavor of Guitar Slim in its sound. But perhaps the most significant aspect of his short stay at Specialty was due to a typo when his first release for them came out. Given the nickname King Earl by Rupe, the printers mistakenly transposed the name to read Earl King and the name was there for the remainder of his life.
1955 found Earl King with yet another label; this time it was Johnny Vincent’s Ace Records. He recorded a string of well-received numbers that included tunes such as “Well O Well O Well O Baby” and “ Weary Silent Nights,” but it was the release of “Those Lonely, Lonely Nights” that made Earl King a national recording star. The song reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s R&B charts and reportedly sold over 250,000 copies. Since its initial release, the song has been covered numerous times, by artists ranging from Hank Ballard and Ann Cole to Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Unfortunately, the song may have even done better for King had it not been for Watson’s version, which was put on the market shortly following King’s own, taking away sales from the original’s pace.
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| Earl King photo by Greg Johnson |
By 1960, Earl King had once again relocated to another record label, working with the incredible songwriter/producer Dave Bartholomew at Cosimo Matassa’s Imperial Records. While with Imperial, King began focusing on more than just songwriting and performing. He worked as an arranger and producer for the label, too. Among the artists under his control were Huey Smith, Roland Stone and Jimmy Clanton. In fact, King claimed that he was responsible for the production of Clanton’s biggest hit single, “Just A Dream,” though he was never given for credit for his participation in the session. Others for whom he wrote material for were Fats Domino, Johnny Adams and Willie Tee.
In 1962, Earl King once again struck the big time with another hit song, “Trick Bag.” The number has often been labeled as the essential New Orleans story song. It reached up to No. 17 on the Billboard charts and has seen extended life with covers by The Meters and Robert Palmer. He followed “Trick Bag” with yet another smash single, “Come On (Let The Good Times Roll).” With covers of this tune recorded by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fats Domino, Lee Dorsey and Dr. John, among others, it may have single-handedly provided a steady income through royalties.
Earl King wrote the song “Big Chief” about his mother for a recording to help re-establish the career of Professor Longhair in 1964. Joined in the studio on guitar by his songwriting protégé Mac Rebannack, more commonly recognized as Dr. John, King sang and whistled, perhaps the song’s most beloved trait. Longhair had recorded the piano parts during an earlier session, and Earl had laid tracks for the vocals and whistling as a demo for which Longhair could repeat himself later. But the song was released with King’s tracks intact, becoming one of the most cherished Mardi Gras anthems of all time.
Things began to slow a bit for Earl King as the decade came closer to an end. He recorded an album at Allen Toussaint’s SeaSaint Studio in 1972, titled “Street Parade.” But there were complications and the recording only saw release in the United Kingdom at the time. But once again, King struck home with another Mardi Gras standard with the title track.
The following years saw earl King fall into semi-retirement. He continued to write songs, but only made rare appearances on compilation discs through much of the next fourteen years.
His career had a resurgence in 1986, though, as he signed on with the Black Top label. That year he released an album, joined by the New England Blues band Roomful of Blues titled “Glazed.” It featured a cover photo taken at one of the city’s Tastee Donut shops, where King reportedly held court as a regular customer and conducted his business from. The album was very well-received and earned a Grammy nomination, declaring that Earl King was back! He appeared on recordings documenting the label’s acclaimed Blues-A-Rama shows held at Tipitina’s during the yearly extravaganza New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Two more solo efforts, “Sexual Telepathy” (1990) and “Hard River To Cross” (1993) featured new takes on some of his earlier classic. Both also received critical acclaim. Earl even received a Lifetime Achievement honor from the city’s famed Offbeat music magazine.
During the last few years of his life, Earl King suffered many bouts with diabetes. His touring schedule took on more performances overseas, especially in Japan, and less at home. Diabetes eventually caught up, hospitalizing him April of 2003. He died of complications stemming from the disease on April 17, 2003, at New Orleans St. Charles General Hospital. As is tradition with the Crescent City’s most beloved artists, he was carried home to rest with a traditional Jazz funeral procession complete with street parade. A fitting tribute to a man who defined the city’s musical heritage.
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Joe "Guitar" Hughes
Written by Greg Johnson Monday, 29 June 2009 21:43
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| Joe "Guitar" Hughes |
Joe "Guitar" Hughes lived his entire life in Houston, where he crafted his skills to rank among the city's most elite players of the blues guitar. But unlike home town peers such as Johnny Copeland and Albert Collins, Hughes decision to remain in Houston in lieu of constant touring may have cost him the price of fame these others achieved.
He was born in Houston's Fourth Ward on September 29, 1937. Though his mother did not approve of Blues music, Joe was still exposed early in life to a steady diet of Texas artists such as T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins through radio and records owned by his stepfather. His mother did encourage her son to sing; but it was the sounds of Gospel and Country-Western that met her approval. Anything resembling Blues could result in punishment and beatings for the youngster.
As a teenager, Joe purchased his first guitar from money he earned as a dishwasher. This soon led to the formation of his first musical group, The Dukes, at the age of 16. In its first incarnation, The Dukes were primarily a vocal trio. One of its members would remain a life-long friend of Joe's and he would also become one of Houston's most recognized Blues artists, Johnny Copeland.
After a short period of time, the group reformed itself with new members as Joe began to teach the others to play various instruments. They changed their name to The Dukes of Rhythm, with Joe as its leader. Originally Joe attempted to place Johnny Copeland behind the drums, but soon found Herbert Henderson could keep time better. So Joe and Johnny shared duties at guitar, and bassist James Johnson filled out the line-up. The Dukes of Rhythm became an extremely popular band in Houston's Third Ward neighborhood, an area already renowned as a breeding ground for popular musicians such as Albert Collins, Clarence "Gatemoth" Brown and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. Beginning in 1958 and lasting for five years, The Dukes of Rhythm took on the role as house band at Shady's Playhouse, one of Houston's hottest clubs of the period which offered entertainment from the Blues' biggest stars of the time. Playing here allowed the band to work alongside many of the top performers of the time, such as Big Mama Thornton and T-Bone Walker.
In 1963, The Dukes of Rhythm began to dissolve as a band, with Johnny Copeland leaving to perform as a solo act. Joe hooked up with Little Richard's former band The Upsetters, following their flamboyant leader's decision to step away from Rock & Roll to pursue a purer path with religion. Joe would remain with the band (which also included saxophone player Grady Gaines) for two years, often touring in package concerts with people like Sam & Dave and Fats Domino, that took him outside of Texas and around the country for the first time.
Joe remained with The Upsetters for only two years, at which point he took a role with Bobby Bland's band, again hitting the tour circuit and also recording with the singer on his 1967 album "A Touch of the Blues." It wasn't the first time that Joe Hughes had made recordings, there had been a handful of solo 45 rpms for various labels such as Gallant, Kangaroo, Jetstream and Golden Eagle. Though he recorded a number of songs, they were pretty much just regionally distributed and included such numbers as "The Shoe Shy," "I Can't Go On This Way," "Ants In My Pants" and "Where There's A Will (There's A Way)."
During the time that Joe worked with Bobby Bland, the band's shows were often supported by emerging Houston star, pianist Al "TNT" Braggs. Joe soon left Bland's group to work with Braggs regularly, and he stayed on the road with him for the next three years.
Touring did not agree with Joe Hughes. He preferred to stay at home with his school teacher wife Willie Lee "Mae" and his children, so following this stint with Braggs he decided to return home to Houston. He spent a short time with the local band Julius Jones and the Rivieras, and then bounced amongst many small groups, almost in obscurity, until the mid-‘80s.
It was 1985 when his old friend Johnny Copeland talked Joe into joining him for a performance in Europe. Although Joe Hughes was not very well known in his homeland, his past recordings had found popularity across the Atlantic. (These earlier songs had been issued by the Collectibles label without Hughes' knowledge. Along with thirteen other musicians who had also had their music released without permission, Joe Hughes won a judgement for $260,000 for copyright infringement in 1997.) He soon discovered that the show he was to perform with Copeland in Utrecht, Holland, was actually a co-bill where he was the second headliner. The extraordinary reception that he received by the audience brought about a resurrection in the career of Joe "Guitar" Hughes.
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| Joe "Guitar" Hughes photo by Jeff Dunas |
Other than a couple small-label releases ("Movin' On," on the Rollin'label in 1987 and "This One's For You," on Estox, 1988, both issued on cassette only), Joe "Guitar" Hughes had never experienced a legitimate large market solo recording, so considering that his second career was based in Europe, it was only fitting that his first major solo album would be for the Dutch label Double Trouble, titled "Texas Guitar Master Craftsman," released in 1988. And his popularity with the foreign Blues fans did not go unnoticed by the American market either, as he found a record deal with the New Orleans based Black Top label, with his debut American release "If You Want To See These Blues" in 1989. He would also be a featured performer for Black Top's yearly Blues jam in New Orleans' Tiptina club during the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. A handful of these appearances are documented on the album "Black Top Blues-A-Rama, Volume 5."
Although Joe "Guitar" Hughes albums were received with reasonable success and acclaim, he seldom found the opportunity to return to the studio throughout the remainder of his life. Double Trouble issued the double-live release "Live At Vrendenburg" in 1993, which offered a distinctive look at the mastery of Hughes' concert prowess, and also featured the harmonica work of Texas virtuouso Sonny Boy Terry. A second Dutch label, Munich, released "Down & Depressed: Dangerous" that same year.
But perhaps his greatest moment on tape came with the 1996 Bullseye Blues CD, "Texas Guitar Slinger." The album showcased Joe Hughes at his finest, fully capturing the guitar skills that had made him a legend in Houston's upper echelon alongside Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. One final album made its way to the Blues market in 2001 with "Stuff Like That" on the Blues Express label.
Joe had also been a primary focus of two films documenting the Houston Blues scene. The first was produced by Alan Govenar, a historian who has written several books and articles on Texas musicians. The subject of the film was Joe and fellow Houston guitarist Pete Mayes, titled "Battle of the Guitars." The second film, made in 1999 by Heather Korb, was "Third Ward Blues." It featured interviews and concert footage of Hughes, as well as friends and peers Johnny Copeland, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Albert Collins.
During the last few years of his life, Joe "Guitar" Hughes continued to perform and to travel more than ever before. A great deal of time was spent in Europe before the audiences who had left a special feeling within him since his first appearance there in 1985. He told one European interviewer that if he had a choice, he'd spend eight months a year playing for the people of that continent. Taking two others for touring America and the last two for recording new material.
On May 15, 2003, Joe Hughes suffered a massive heart attack and was hospitalized at Hermann Pavilion Hospital. He never recovered from the cardiac episode, passing away five days later on May 20th. Joe "Guitar" Hughes was survived by his wife Willie Lee "Mae" Hughes, seven daughters and two sons. He was laid to rest in Hudgins cemetery in nearby Bay City, Texas on May 24th.
Though he may never have received the same level of fame as his friends from the Third Ward, Joe "Guitar" Hughes was one of Houston's finest Blues musicians. Being home near his family was more important for him than name recognition. But for Joe Hughes, the nickname he was given was a fitting one, "Guitar," as he was definitely one of Texas' all-time best.
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Crying Time: The Story of Ray Charles (1930-2004)
Written by Greg Johnson Monday, 29 June 2009 21:43
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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.
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