The Genius Of Ray Charles - Ray Charles (1959)

(The Nines - looking for some rhyme or reason for what to pick next, i started with a 2019 record and then went back ten years each time.) I think I’ve reached the end here, because while the “album” technically existed in 1949, it wasn’t really the way people thought about releasing music.

The obvious choice from 1959 is Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue, but I won’t try to find something new to write about that. Instead I’ll go with Ray Charles, another titanic figure in modern music.

This is mostly a standards record. The first half is big band music arranged by Quincy Jones, and it’s honestly better than side 2 in almost every way. The second half is ballads with strings. Lovely but also a little non-descript.

Charles did a lot of groundbreaking and trailblazing in his career. This isn’t really that. It’s just him being a charismatic and talented performer. He basically invented soul as a genre, but it’s worth keeping in mind that he could play big band and small ensemble jazz with the best, and shortly after this he would release several albums full of soul stylings of country songs.

Just a fantastic musician with an amazing musical mind.

Tracks I liked:

It Had To Be You - you can have your pick of the best versions of this one, but don’t sleep on Charles’s

Deed I Do - those brass hits

Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Cryin - Sounds like Glen Campbell but 20 years sooner

Come Rain or Come Shine - First time I heard this was from Billie Holiday. The strings make this version a little sappy, but the backing vocals and his top-notch work on the melody are great.