Appearances
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October 25, 2015
A Radio Commercial For An Integrated Ray Charles Gig In Memphis, 1961
Read moreSometimes collecting Elvis memorabilia turns out to be a relevant passtime. The B-side of this acetate is a promotional jingle for Ray Charles’ August 20, 1961, concert at the Ellis City Auditorium, the first integrated gig in Memphis.That may be special, but its A-side is much bigger Music History News: it’s a so far unknown […]
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October 14, 2015
Ray Charles Live At Jazz In The Rockies (1982)
Read moreOn September 4, 1982 the Ray Charles band performed at KUVO-FM’s Jazz In The Rockies, in Winter Park (CO). The other acts were The Charlie Haden Quartet/Quintet, Art Blakey, Chick Corea/Gary Burton, Pat Metheny/The Charlie Haden Duo, Betty Carter and her Trio, and Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition. Recently, a reasonably good ‘audience taping’ of Brother […]
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August 28, 2015
Ray Charles In An Early Seventies Concert
Read moreEpisode 2 of Tony Palmer’s series The Story Of Popular Music, titled God’s Children – The Beginnings, has a rare color sequence, where Ray Charles and his keyboardist John Henderson deliver part of a concert’s finale.The footage is most probably from 1972, and may be related, somehow, to Gary Keys, who also claimed directing the […]
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July 15, 2015
Ray Charles Live In Ithaca (1984)
Read moreOn November 8, 1984, the Ray Charles Group performed at Cornell University’s Bailly Hall in Ithaca.* Someone in the audience had his Nakamichi ready to tape the concert. The line-up of the band probably wasn’t much different from the Warsaw concerts in late October: Robbie Kwock, Mark Curry, Jim Seely, Jeff Kaye – trumpets; John […]
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June 20, 2015
Ray Charles Guesting At Gala-Abend In Berlin
Read moreOn August 28, 1971, Ray Charles performed What’d I Say, as the finale of the “Internationalen Starparade des Gala-Abends der Schallplatte”. He probably played with his own big band and The Raelettes. The show was televized live by Sender Freies Berlin/WDR-2, and shortly after a commemorative elpee was released in a limited edition by Sender Freies Berlin (TST 77 […]
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May 19, 2015
Ray Charles Live In Warsaw (2000)
Read moreOn his 70th birthday, on 23 September 2000, Ray Charles appeared for the third time at the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree – this time a symphony concert at the Wielki Theatre. The show, directed by Dariusz Goczał, was broadcast by TVP 1. From his band’s Rolodex he picked Brad Rabuchin – g, Tom Fowler – b, […]
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February 20, 2015
More Pictures Of Ray Charles At The Salute To Freedom Benefit (Birmingham, 1963)
Read moreThe Salute To Freedom benefit evening in Birmingham on August 5, 1963 was co-organized by AGVA (the American Guild of Variety Artists). Here’s their chairman Joey Adams, clowning and dancing on stage with a little girl – while Ray Charles is performing, playing piano, accompanied by his own orchestra’s bass player Edgar Willis and by […]
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January 7, 2015
Ray Charles: “The Music That I Liked Was Music I Felt” (Interview, 1982)
Read moreThe 2014 ebook re-release of Peter Guralnick’s magistral Sweet Soul Music – Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (1st ed. 1986) was enhanced with old and new interviews with a.o. Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, and Solomon Burke, and an additional new chapter for each. The interview with Brother Ray took place in […]
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December 4, 2014
It’s The Unreal Thing
Read moreOn April 23, 1985, Coca Cola did the unthinkable: they announced that they were reformulating their soft drink, “spawning consumer angst the likes of which no business has ever seen”. The night before they invited Ray Charles at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta (Robert Winship Woodruff was the president of The Coca-Cola Company from 1923 […]
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November 30, 2014
Ray Charles Speaking At Great American Talk Festival
Read moreThe Great American Talk Festival was a lecture series – held between 1977 and 1984 – featuring writers, actors, musicians, journalists and politicians such as Alex Haley, Cicely Tyson, Pearl Bailey, Ray Charles, David Letterman, Mike Wallace and Dan Rather. Profits from ticket sales went to Grand Rapids Junior College scholarships. Ray Charles spoke in […]
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November 20, 2014
3/4 Time
Read moreAlbum: Wish You Were Here Tonight, Columbia 38293, March 1983.Single (A): Columbia 3810, March 1983, b/w You Feel Good All Over. Recorded with uncredited Nashville session musicians between 1981 and 1983, finished at RPM International in Los Angeles. Arranged by James Polk. Columbia produced a clip of the song, directed by Marc Ball, edited by Captain Video, […]
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November 20, 2014
A Brand New Day (With Stevie Wonder, Patti Austin, James Ingram; Ray Charles On Piano)
Read moreUnreleased. On December 2, 2001 Ray participated (a bit) in the performance of this song, the grand finale of the 24th Kennedy Center Celebration, honoring Quincy Jones. (Starts at 17:06): Update 24.01.2021: the video of this performance is no longer available on YouTube, please let me know in the comments below if you have any footage, thanks — […]