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June 28, 2018
A Message From The People, Revisited By Band Of Heathens
Read moreQuincy Jones himself has endorsed it?! WTF? It sounds as if Michael Bolton produced it!The Band of Heathens have announced their remarkable new album, A Message From The People, to be released in September 2018. It entails a complete re-interpretation of Ray Charles‘ 1972 album with the same title. Their vision is okay and relevant: […]
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June 16, 2018
When Did Ray Sing His First Blues?
Read moreNothing much has been written about the publisher of Rock And Roll Roundup. All I know is his first name, Barry. He obviously had an ecclectic taste for contemporary music directed at ‘teenagers’, and he didn’t discriminate between ‘white’ rock and roll and ‘black’ (rhythm and) blues. Although most articles seem to have been produced in coordination […]
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December 22, 2017
Uroš Perić Shines On Have A Merry Christmas!
Read moreWithin a year or so after Ray Charles passed away, two things happened that would help a lot to soften the pain and fill the emptiness his death left behind in the hearts and souls of his fans. Firstly, YouTube was founded, slowly but surely opening up a plethora of Brother Ray’s live performances – over the […]
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May 18, 2017
The Schiffman Index Cards On Ray Charles At The Apollo, 1957 – 1971
Read moreThe Schiffmans, owners of the Apollo Theater, kept concise and hugely interesting notes on all acts he booked and re-booked. Each index card tracked the acts through the years, listing the dates of the opening nights (many gigs were for one week), the amounts paid out, and – above all – the Schiffman family’s brutally […]
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May 4, 2017
How To Raycharlesify A Tune
Read moreRay Charles’ studio version from 1964 of A Tear Fell (single: ABC-45-10571; album: ABCS-480-4), as arranged by Sid Feller, was nice enough. But only in this live version at the Pleyel Room in Paris, in a concert on October 8, 1968, the Genius could share what he really heard in the song, showing how beautiful […]
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April 11, 2017
Ray Charles Authoring Jack Sheldon Album’s Cover Notes (1961)
Read moreIn 1961 Ray Charles was at the pinnacle of his fame. It was also the year that he was first recognized and honored with a tribute album, by the soulful trumpeteer Jack Sheldon: A Jazz Profile Of Ray Charles (released by Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records, R-2004, July 1961). Sheldon recorded the 12 tracks over two […]
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May 21, 2016
The Ray Charles Songbook
Read moreA worthy and fun tribute to Brother Ray (finally, after all these years!). The show was staged twice, on May 20 and 21, 2016. Both programs were recorded on video and audio. The 20 May concert was broadcast by PBS (live on TV and on the web on the 20th; a few days later parts […]
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November 21, 2014
Roll With My Baby
Read moreSingle (B): Atlantic 976, September 1952, b/w The Midnight Hour. Compilation album: What’d I Say, Atlantic 8029, September 1959. Recorded on 11 September 1952 in New York, with “His Orchestra”: trumpet, saxes, drums, bass by unidentified musicians.
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November 19, 2014
Almost Like Being In Love
Read moreAlbum: Ray Charles à L’Olympia, (DVD): Music Video Distributors, 2006 (2000); (Audio CD): XIII Bis Records, 11 January 2005, 640543 2. Another Nat Cole song. Ray Charles, keyboards, vocal; Brad Rabuchin, guitar; Tom Fowler, acoustic double bass; Peter Turre, drums. Olympia, Paris, 2000 (starts at 50.54): Update 25.01.2021: the video of this performance is no longer […]