Written by
Bob Stumpel

January 9
2012


Ray Charles Live In Lugano (1986)


'86 LC LuganoConcert 1986 Lugano

The ‘cover artwork’ that comes
with the audio torrent
has photos of Ray from the 1990s.
The list of song titles has lots of errors.

On 1 July 1986 Ray Charles, his Orchestra and The Raelettes performed at the Estival Jazz Lugano, at the Piazza Della Riforma. The show, a French voice over said, was the first Ray Charles concert that was broadcast live on Swiss television (I assume it was aired by the French language public channel TSR 1). Two versions of this taping for TV have survived, as well as an audio file (originally, possibly produced for a radio broadcast).


Live TV concert
The setlist of the complete concert as it was broadcast live by Swiss television in ’86 was*:

  1. Smokin’ At Hungry Joe’s (The Ray Charles Orchestra; solos Mike Christiansen – tb, Steve Elliott – as, Ernest Vantrease – e-p)
  2. Wave (The Ray Charles Orchestra; solo Clifford Solomon – ts)
  3. Sister Sadie (The Ray Charles Orchestra; solos Al Jackson – bs, Jeff Kaye – tp)
  4. Intro
  5. Then We’ll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
  6. Busted
  7. Georgia On My Mind
  8. You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want To Do It)
  9. I’ve Got News For You (solos Jeff Pevar – g, Ernest Vantrease – o)
  10. Some Enchanted Evening (solo Rudy Johnson – ts)
  11. She Knows (solo Mo Pleasure – b)
  12. Intro Raelettes
  13. I Want Your Love (with Estella Yarbrough; solo Mo Pleasure – b)
  14. Anyway You Want To (with The Raelettes; solo Jeff Pevar – g)
  15. Don’t Change On Me
  16. I Can’t Stop Loving You
  17. I Can See Clearly Now (solo Jeff Pevar – g)
  18. I’m Gonna Keep On Singin’
  19. What’d I Say
  20. Outro 1
  21. We Are The World (with The Raelettes)
  22. Outro 2

The instrumental track # 1 (Smokin’ At Hungry Joe’s) was composed and arranged by Bill Baker; # 2 (Wave) was penned by Antonio Carlos Jobim, and arranged by James Polk.
Also read this post, highlighting a little incident during #18 (a long version of  I’m Gonna Keep On Singin’) between Ray and the Swiss audience during the concert.
* Special thanks to J.P. Verger and Peter Turre.

Edit of TV program
Swiss television later produced an edit with a small selection of the concert:

  1. Some Enchanted Evening
  2. She Knows
  3. I Want Your Love 
  4. Then We’ll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
  5. Don`t Change On Me
  6. I Can’t Stop Loving You
  7. I Can See Clearly Now
  8. What`d I Say
  9. We Are The World
  10. Outro

Audio
There is also a audio torrent circulating on the Web, with this selection:

  1. Intro
  2. Then We’ll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
  3. Busted
  4. Georgia On My Mind
  5. You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want To Do It)
  6. I’ve Got News For You (solo Jeff Pevar – g, Ernest Vantrease – o)
  7. Some Enchanted Evening (solo Rudy Johnson – ts)
  8. She Knows
  9. Intro Raelettes
  10. I Want Your Love (with Estella Yarbrough) (solo Mo Pleasure – b)
  11. Anyway You Want To (with The Raelettes) (solo Jeff Pevar – g)
  12. I Can See Clearly Now (solo Jeff Pevar – g)
  13. I’m Gonna Keep On Singin’
  14. What’d I Say
  15. Outro (1)
  16. We Are The World
  17. Outro (2)

Personnel:
The line-up was highly similar to the one during the concert, less than a week later, at the Black Heritage Festival in Toyohashi, but in Lugano the band also included Ernest Vantrease.
Musicians: Mark Curry, Jim Seeley, Ted Murdock, Jeff Kaye – trumpets; Armin Marmolejo, Mike Christianson, Ken Tussing, Charlie Schofner – trombones; Steve Elliott, Clifford Solomon (bandleader), Ricky Woodard, Rudy Johnson, Al Jackson – saxophones; Paul Kreibich – drums Jeff Pevar – guitar; Mo(rris) Pleasure – bass;  Ernest Vantrease – organ, piano and electric piano. The Raelettes: Sharon Creighton, Estella Yarbrough, Gladys […], Elaine Woodard, Angela Workman.

For purely documentary reasons, I’m embedding the first two instrumentals below. Please do not share these  elsewhere.

’86 LC Lugano – Smokin’ At Hungry Joe’s (The Ray Charles Orchestra; solos Mike Christiansen – tb, Steve Elliott – as, Ernest Vantrease – e-p):

’86 LC Lugano – Wave (The Ray Charles Orchestra; regrettably, the sound man turned off Clifford Solomon’s microphone during the second part of his tenor sax solo, but his unique sounds return – wait for it!):

’86 LC Lugano – I’ve Got News For You (solos Jeff Pevar – g, Ernest Vantrease – o):


Comments

Bob Stumpel — 2012-01-28 20:53:22

You're absolutely right - thnx!

jpverger — 2012-01-28 20:05:32

le solo de Some Enchanted evening est fait par le saxo tenor de Rudy Johnson et non l'alto de Al jackson?JPV

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