Oleg Akkuratov is a unique blind pianist. Ray Charles: biography, best songs, interesting facts, listen to The blind black pianist
There are more than seventy albums in the Ray Charles archive
Ray Charles Robinson is a blind jazz musician whose fruitfulness is the envy of many stars modern stage. More than seventy albums to his credit speak for themselves.
You can say that perhaps this is one of those very cases where quantity is trying to compensate for a lack of quality. But have you heard of such a musician as Frank Sinatra? Personally, he spoke of Ray Robinson as the only genius in the world of show business. His song What’d I say was in fifth place on the list of the most best songs of all times and peoples. Do you know her? Yes, you probably heard it, but you didn’t even know who was performing it, not to mention what it was called. It is perceived as one of the most killer rock and roll standards!
IN modern world he is one of the key figures in the development of world show business. And although symbolic lists of the most best musicians twentieth century are usually of a very superficial nature, he falls into them with enviable frequency.
Well, haven't you heard? No problem, we'll fix it all now.
I myself first became acquainted with the biography of this extraordinary artist when I watched the film “Ray”. This is an excellent biographical film that quite accurately and dispassionately describes a significant part of the life of a popular musician.
Personally, the film gave me conflicting feelings. How honest was he? Don't know. But after watching, you don’t get the impression of Ray Charles as some kind of sanctimonious saint or a show business offspring mired in vices.
In short, it's fun, cool, with a hint of deep melancholy and rock 'n' roll fervor. I recommend watching! And for fans of Ray, this film is a must-see.
So let's try to consider what kind of person he was.
So, let's start in order:
Born, raised, died... not all at once. Albany, Georgia is the birthplace of Ray Charles. Charles's family was not just poor. She was unusually poor, even by black standards. As the musician himself later said: “Below us was only the earth.”
When he was only a few months old, the family moved to South Florida, to the village of Greenville. Having abandoned Ray and his younger brother George, his father left the family and went off into the wild.
When Ray was five years old, an incident occurred that is described in some detail in the film. His younger brother accidentally fell into a tub of water and could not get out. Ray tried to help him get out of there, but he didn't have enough strength. And his younger brother died.
There are suggestions that it was because of the shock he suffered that Ray began to gradually lose his sight until he became completely blind at the age of seven. See Ray said that no one knows why he became blind. Perhaps this was a consequence of the illness he had suffered. When the musician became famous, he tried to acquire sight. He even advertised for someone to donate one eye to him, but doctors refused to perform the operation, considering it too risky and pointless.
As a child, he began attending a school for the blind, where he learned Braille. In addition, from the age of three he began to learn to play the piano, and his musical talent also began to manifest itself in the Baptist choir. But when he was only fifteen years old, his mother died, and a couple of years later his father died.
How it all began
When Ray finished school, he began to participate in many musical projects. At that time he mainly played jazz and country music. As befits young musicians, he drew his inspiration from other famous jazz musicians, such as Artie Shaw. His first band was called The Florida Playboys.
When he turned seventeen, he collected six hundred dollars and went to Seattle, where he soon met guitarist Gossady McGee, with whom he began to play and founded a band. They first recorded on Swingtime Records. He also collaborated with Fullson when he released his first hit. It's called Confession Blues. Then he released the famous Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand and moved to the Atlantic records label. He just needed a greater degree of creative freedom.
Ray's first wife was Eileen Williams, whom he married on July 31, 1951. Their marriage lasted only a year, after which they divorced. Later he married Della Beatriz, this happened in 1956 and this marriage lasted longer, until the year 77. By the way, the film does not say a word about his first wife, but the leitmotif is the story of his life with his second wife.
In total, Ray had twelve children, but he gave birth to only three (in the biblical sense) in marriage. But let's leave the old dirty linen of the deceased and return to his bright and pure creativity.
On his new label, Atlantic, he was encouraged to find his own unique sound. Which he did with all the passion of which he was capable. In fifty-three he recorded his famous single Mess Around. Then, together with guitarist Guitar Slean, he recorded the single The Things That I Used To Do.
When did he write the song I Got a Woman in 1955? , it reached number one on the charts. It is believed that this is the first soul recording. Ray primarily played music that was half gospel and the rest blues ballads. It turns out that Ray Charles was one of those who popularized the original black music among the population.
History of the composition What'd I Say
In the Ray Charles in Person record you can hear the same characteristics, which were inherent early creativity Ray Charles. This album was recorded quite unusually for those years. This was not a studio recording, but a concert performance. At the same time, he played What’d I Say, which became one of his most recognizable compositions. They say it was just an improvisation during a rehearsal before a concert. But it was she who had the greatest influence on the world of rock and roll at one time.
Charles himself told the story of the creation of this song as follows: he was just playing last song from your program under called The Night Time. It was in a nightclub in Milwaukee. When he finished playing, the club administrator confronted him with the fact that he had to lose another 12 minutes. And then he decided to improvise. And he played for all twelve minutes. The public was delighted, although the recording studio later refused to release it, citing the fact that it was too long.
Then the WOAK radio station recorded it and included it in the author’s album. The song instantly became a hit. When Atlantic Records finally gave up, the song was split into two parts. Then many more popular performers made cover versions of it. As Paul McCartney said, this composition gave him a huge impetus for creativity.
Style development
Soon, Ray Charles continued to develop his style, going beyond the boundaries of gospel combined with blues, and began recording with major orchestras. It was then that he wrote his first country song. He received a Grammy for the blues song Let the Good Time Roll. In it he demonstrated a voice of rare strength and expression.
When Ray moved to ABC Records, he signed such a fantastic contract that made him one of the highest paid musicians of his time. He moved to Beverly Hills, where he purchased the largest mansion in the area. There he lived until his death, which at that time was still many, many years away.
His work at ABC was distinctive. On the one hand, he also received more freedom, and on the other hand, he stopped participating in experimental projects and began writing music closer to the mainstream. He had a choir as backing singer, and a big band and string orchestras as accompaniment.
This created a dramatically different sound. At Atlantic he wrote almost chamber music, and at ABC he began producing orchestral jazz standards. At the same time, the musician’s repertoire simply stunned the imagination with its diversity and volume. At the same time he wrote his famous Hit The Road Jack. More precisely, it is written by Percy Mailfield; before recording, the backing singer told Ray that she was pregnant with his child. The musician was far from delighted, and this mixture of rage and anguish, sounding in the song that we now know, was somehow... completely natural.
And here is an excerpt from the film:
Georgia on My Mind has been recorded by many musicians. Among them were Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Ray Charles. It was his business card ABC times. Its author, Hog Carmichael, dedicated it to a girl named Georgia, but a little later it became the anthem of the state of Georgia. But there was a girl before, so let the right associations arise for you!
But one way or another, Ray performed Georgia on My Mind in the Statehouse. And, in fact, it entered the circulation of country music. For a black musician, this was simply unimaginable success. And in general, Ray has always opposed racism. Once he even canceled a concert in Georgia because black and white listeners had to sit separately. This deeply outraged him.
Drugs
This idyll lasted until he was 65, when he was arrested for possession of marijuana and heroin. The musician has been dependent on these two “happy drugs” for more than twenty years, that is, almost his entire adult life. Drugs had been found on him before, but so far Ray had managed to get away without being arrested. The first time the police did not have a search warrant, and the case was not continued; the second time, he agreed to treatment for drug addiction, and the third time he had to go to prison.
He himself saw little of himself as a drug addict. It was only later, during his imprisonment, that he had to quit drugs, but until then he took them like aspirin. That is, in real life he understood how terrible his situation was, and when he went on stage, he began to perceive them as aspirin. That is, you feel bad - and you start taking medicine to relieve the pain.
This “drug addict” part of his life is shown very clearly in the film “Ray”
But what happened next is simply interesting. For example, having given up drugs, he did not write anything outstanding anymore. But he did fantastic covers. But he no longer had his masterpieces. Coincidence? Hardly. The fact is that these drugs, when used, replace part of the natural hormones secreted by the brain, and when the patient stops taking the “medicines,” he justifiably loses inspiration and simply becomes depressed.
In addition, after cleansing his lifestyle, Ray Charles changed his musical style. He became even closer to the mainstream. So after the seventies they began to perceive him far less clearly. Personally, I remember the story with bodybuilders: everyone condemns their passion for steroids and other experiments on their own bodies, but on the other hand, only steroid musclemen are printed on posters. C'est la vie.
He began to record a lot of casual material, so his work during this period began to seem more monotonous. His most notable song of that time was America the Beautiful. Then this song was included in The Message for People, which became the musician’s first politically charged album.
In those years, he no longer played the classical piano, but the piano, which made the sound of his albums in the seventies especially stand out against the background of other years.
Around this time, Ray began to actively experiment with synthesizers. He often imitated other instruments with them a lot, and his keyboard solos took on a completely new flavor. It started to sound more like an electric guitar solo. This was especially evident in the way he handled the pitch wheel, which in the nineties he began to do simply to perfection.
Mature years
Usually in mature age The musician's audience begins to shift somewhat... more precisely, it does not shift, it remains in its generation, only the age of the listeners changes - they grow old. But Ray Charles managed to get a youth audience. This became especially obvious after the Friendship album.
He also spoke at Reagan’s inauguration, which became a source of evil tongues: they began to claim that Ray had cast a shadow on his reputation. The fact is that Ray was a Democrat, but Reagan was a Republican. Therefore, Ray agreed to perform only for a staggering fee of one hundred thousand dollars. Then his agent commented on it this way: “For that kind of money, we would agree to speak at a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan.”
In the early nineties, Ray Charles began performing in many musical projects, including classical gospel with the London Orchestra as part of a charity event.
All of Charles's albums until the last became popular. On April 30, 2004, he gave a concert for the last time. But his recordings were released even after his death.
Syncope“I won't live forever. I'm smart enough to understand this. It’s not a matter of how long I will live, the only question is how beautiful my life will be.”
"But to know the beauty of the universe...
To glorify God forever,
Knight, I don't need light."
P. Tchaikovsky, "Iolanta"
Syncope in music - a shift in emphasis from a strong beat to a weak beat, that is, a discrepancy between the rhythmic and metric accents.
Anyone who has tried to learn to play any instrument knows perfectly well how difficult it is, and mastering the most difficult musical literature by ear, by touch, by memory it seems a real feat, almost impossible.
Oleg Akkuratov is a unique blind pianist. He won great amount competitions, he accompanied the outstanding opera singer Montserrat Caballe, he absolute pitch and musical memory.
Let me remind you of the materials “Blind Music”. In them I talked about an unexpected turn in the life of our hero, about fateful meetings - such as Vladislav Teterin,. She immediately believed in his talent and predicted the glory of Ray Charles for the blind musician.
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At the age of 13, Oleg recorded his first classical record in Germany. He is a laureate of many competitions. He has such an ear that just when they play out of tune, the guy has such agony on his face... Oleg plays both classics and jazz, and he is a singing jazz musician. When they brought him to the conservatory, the professor said: “This is Mozart! Such people are born once every hundred years!” This was said when he was twelve.
The amazing Armavir teachers invested a lot in the guy, but, as always in Russia, you can’t do without those who can and want to help. Previously, such people were called patrons of the arts, who modestly, without PR, as they would say now, helped many talents get on their feet. After all, you just need money for an accompanying person... Even just to get you to the instrument, not to mention other things.
Vladislav Teterin:
He lived in a musical boarding school near Armavir. When I met him, he was not seven years old. A blind and developmentally delayed boy, abandoned by his parents (they have now returned to him), Oleg began studying with the best teachers. So what now? He won in Germany as classical pianist, won a competition in Russia as a jazz pianist. Performed concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In London with the great musician D. Dorelli. Where has this been seen? World premiere for a world star with a fourteen-year-old blind boy! Now we are planning to record a CD with Elton John. This is a lot of work..."
A blind boy from Armavir, Oleg Akkuratov, found good teachers in his hometown; he came to Moscow many times to take master classes and twice went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. By the age of 17, Oleg not only played phenomenally, but also sang beautifully and performed with Montserrat Caballe. And at the age of 19 he won the International Piano Competition in Novosibirsk - beating his sighted peers. 
classes with conductor S.N. Proskurin
In parallel with his studies at school, where he studied for a total of 14 years, Oleg graduated from the pop-jazz school in absentia and entered the music department of the Moscow University of Culture and Arts. It was planned that after graduation he would work here as an accompanist of the combined choir “Lark”, continuing to study according to an individual program. Therefore, we decided that Armavirskaya would continue to patronize his further creative development School of Music. But the young man should no longer live in a boarding school, as before, but in own apartment, purchased with money raised by Kuban residents.
Of course, it is much better to have a loved one nearby, but his relatives, having sent their child to a boarding school almost fifteen years ago, almost completely transferred the care of him to the shoulders of the state.
The President of the World of Art Foundation, Vladislav Teterin, especially for the blind genius from the Kuban outback, came up with something truly grandiose: on October 14, 2009, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, together with the Yuri Bashmet Orchestra and a combined choir of 815 people, he was supposed to perform Beethoven’s fantasy for piano, six soloists, choir and orchestra... However, the planned triumph did not take place.
“Oleg simply disappeared, did not get in touch,” explains Vladislav Mikhailovich. - I tried to call him many times, but his relatives answered: they say, Oleg is not at home. One day his stepmother picked up the phone and started demanding some money. So she said: “Pay, then he will come to you.” We were all shocked.
True, we were never able to talk in private: his relatives were constantly nearby, monitoring the young man’s every word. It looks like the adults have already decided everything for him. They vying with each other to express their accumulated grievances and share their plans. Now it belongs to his father, who lives on his pension. Oleg lives in a village near Yeisk. The relative realized that the boy promised good income, he realized after many years, without investing a single drop in the development of his talent. Now Oleg is deprived of cultural communication, which he so needs. Now they have put together a jazz band for Akkuratov in the village to earn money for a family of 8 people."
. . . . . .
dad Boris and stepmother:
- In Armavir, they probably forgot that Oleg has a family. “We should have bought an apartment not there, but in Yeisk, next to us.” We will change his housing, if necessary, and we will go to Moscow for him,” says stepmother Marina, mother of 3 children. Found good people, they promise to help. So now, where Oleg goes, so do we.
“There’s no point in making him look like a Kazan orphan. I’ll go to concerts myself, if necessary I’ll go abroad,” Boris declares. - Why does he need strangers if he has a family?
. . . . . . .
Vladislav Teterin, President of the World of Art Foundation:
- In 10 years of teaching this brilliant child, I have never heard my father’s voice. And to find out that he was now Oleg’s impresario was simply wild. I wanted to say in plain text, so that Oleg would definitely hear: “For dad to be your impresario, you need to speak languages, understand music, know conductors and directors of concert halls.” I am glad that the boy has a family, but I am afraid that in six months he will realize that he is left with nothing. The money from the sale of the apartment will quickly run out, and Oleg will be forced to play in a restaurant, although he is unlikely to be able to feed such a large family. Well, go back to high level classical music it will simply be impossible.
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On the black and white keys of life, Oleg Akkuratov plays his bright,
unique and contradictory fate.
...This “syncopation” lasted a year and a half, and I can happily inform readers that the young man was not forgotten, not abandoned, there were musicians and patrons who were not indifferent to his fate to support the musician’s talent.
My short report:
Since September 2011, Oleg has been a student at the Rostov State Conservatory named after S.V. Rachmaninov (class of Professor Honored Artist of the Russian Federation V.S. Daich).
In June 2011, Akkuratov took part in the international festival "Seasons", which is held annually in Kuban. WITH chamber orchestra At the Moscow Concert "Seasons" under the baton of Honored Artist of Russia Vladislav Bulakhov, Oleg successfully performed W.A. Mozart's concerto No. 13, which served as the beginning of further creative collaboration with the team.
One more significant event for Oleg in 2013. Chairman of the jury of the "Triumph of Jazz" competition, which National artist Russia's Igor Butman invited Oleg to his jazz festival.
For reference: International festival"Triumph of Jazz" is the largest world-class jazz event in Russia. The list of triumphs of the festival throughout its history includes a whole kaleidoscope of names of those whom the world jazz community calls living legends: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gary Burton, Larry Corriell, Toots Tielemans, Joe Lovano, Billy Cobham, ... and hundreds more well-known throughout the world of musicians.
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Oleg Akkuratov and Adam Teratsuyan
2014 was a new amazing year for the musician.
May 18, 2014. Seventh international creative festival "Step towards!". As part of the festival, in the Great Hall of St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Oleg Akkuratov and the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic (conductor Vladimir Altshuler).
Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 1, B-flat minor, op. 23 by P.I. Tchaikovsky
year 2014. Paralympic Games.
The Paralympic flag was lowered from the flagpole to the arrangement of the Paralympic anthem performed by blind pianist Oleg Akkuratov.
"Play, blind man, and with your music
Bring goodness through evil and stumbling,
Give love for the joy of people,
Don't be afraid of tears, they are like a revelation.
Let your life be a veil of night,
But the light inside you is most precious..."
(Yana Demidenko)
A 20-year-old Japanese musician named Nobuyuki Tsujii won the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
The result of the competition held in the American state of Texas would not have become so sensational if its winner had not been blind from birth.
For several thousand people present in the hall, a blind young man from Tokyo became living proof of a miracle.
Chubby boy Nobuyuki Tsujii has been reaching his finest hour for almost as long as the 48-year-old star of The Britain`s Got Talent Susan Boyle, who in the spring of 2009 gave the Internet the illusion of a miracle.
It seemed to everyone who watched the video with the first performance of the “shaggy angel” in the show that the moment of truth had come, and the gates of show business had finally opened up to mere mortals.
Subsequent events in the story of the little Scottish housewife, whose life circumstances plunged more than one inhabitant of our planet into tears, showed that the road to Olympus under the rose petals hides sharp thorns, and everyone who decides to step on it will be punctured and wounded by the end of the journey.
Perhaps Nobuyuki Tsujii was lucky that the international show “Got Talent!” (Got Talent) has no equivalent on Japanese television yet. The path to fame of this young man was academic, but at the same time, sensational, they write Dni.ru.
His mother gave a toy piano to a boy who was blind from birth - this is how the story of the birth of the dream and legend Nobuyuki Tsujii begins. He mastered this incredible instrument at two years old. At the age of 12 he performed as a soloist on stage concert hall Suntory in Tokyo and at the same age made his debut at the famous American Carnegie Hall.
A special memorization technique was invented for Nobuyuki instrumental works. The young man neglects the Braille notes for the blind and instead listens to his teacher's notes until he remembers every detail.
The recordings are not easy: the instructor plays a separate part for the left hand and a separate part for the right, and then performs the entire piece, but very slowly, so that Nobuyuki can hear every note. The young man spends five hours a day training, immediately after school, and eight on performance days.
Witnesses of his playing in Texas note that not a single rustle was heard in the hall during the blind pianist’s performance. Nobuyuki received ovation after ovation, but was sincerely surprised by his victory.
“I was amazed when I heard my name at the awards ceremony because I had never even thought about winning this competition,” Reuters quoted the confused young man as saying.
The news of Nobuyuki Tsujii's triumph instantly reached his homeland: his first and so far only disc, “Debut,” soared to second place in the national charts and became the best-selling album ever recorded by a Japanese pianist.
“I dream that spectators will come to my concerts with the words: “I want to hear Chopin performed by Tsujii or, for example, Beethoven performed by Tsujii,” meanwhile, the musician himself admits. “In the future, I’m thinking of focusing on one composer and improving in the performance of his works.”
Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930. American singer, musician, composer, one of the world's most famous performers of soul, country, jazz and rhythm and blues music. Frank Sinatra called him “the only true genius in show business,” and singer Billy Joel said: “This may sound blasphemous, but I believe that Ray Charles was more important than . ...Who the hell has ever mixed so many styles together and made it work?!”
His real name was Ray Charles Robinson. One of the producers of Swingtime Records, who saw the guy as a rising star, advised him to shorten his name. At that time, the surname “Robinson” on the star Olympus of the United States was firmly occupied by champion boxer Ray Robinson (Ray “Sugar” Robinson), and in order to avoid confusion, it was decided to create the stage name “Ray Charles”. However, Ray's voice, talent and passion for music, which Ray was obsessed with, would have elevated him to the heights of fame under any name.
There were no musicians in the Robinson family, much less famous ones. Ray's parents (born in Albany, Georgia) were considered the poorest residents of the black community of the tiny village of Greenville in Florida, where the family soon moved. “We were at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the others... below us there was only the ground,” Charles recalled. The boy was 5 years old when his younger brother George began to drown in a tub of water before his eyes (their mother worked as a laundress). No matter how hard Ray tried, he could not save his brother - he was too heavy for him. This scene then haunted the musician all his life. A year later, Ray suddenly began to lose his sight, and by the age of 7 he was completely blind. The boy was saved by his mother, whom he idolized... and music. Aretha Robinson was a strong woman - she did not lament, but acted: knowing that her son was about to go blind, she taught him the most necessary skills for a blind person while Ray could still see. And she sent me to a boarding school for deaf and blind children. So he learned to read words and notes at the same time - using the Braille system. Here the guy mastered a bunch of instruments - trumpet, clarinet, organ, saxophone and piano. However, Ray became addicted to the latter much earlier: as a three-year-old boy, he endlessly ran to a nearby pharmacy, whose owner played the piano, and tried to imitate boogiewoogie.
Looking ahead, I will say that the cause of Ray Charles’s blindness has not been fully established: one of the supposed diagnoses is glaucoma. It was rumored that many years later, in the 1980s, having become a wealthy man, the musician submitted an anonymous advertisement looking for a donor willing to donate one eye to him. However, the operation never took place - doctors considered it a pointless risk. Ray himself was quite ironic about his own blindness: he always shaved in front of the mirror, wore Sunglasses, acted in films, drove a car, even piloted an airplane! But he never gave autographs - after all, the singer could not see what exactly was being given to him to sign (!); and he was extremely reluctant to talk to journalists. When Ray was once asked whether he felt unhappy because of his blindness, the musician was surprised: “Why? When you are blind, you probably lose about 1/99 of what life gives you. I know it is very important to see your children or admire the beauty of the moon. Okay, one percent off. But my life won’t stop because of this, will it?” Ray's friends claimed that they had never met a more independent person than this blind musician.
Since childhood, reading notes with his fingers and playing by ear, Charles trained his memory so much that he could easily compose arrangements without even touching the instrument. He considered Frederic Chopin, Jean Sibelius, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Art Tatum and Artie Shaw to be his musical teachers.
Even during his student years, Ray was known as the first musician of the school, where he performed with solo concerts and as part of the group “The Florida Playboys”. By the age of 17, having lost both parents, the guy decided to try his luck in big city: Putting the accumulated $600 in his pocket, Ray went to the other end of the continent - to Seattle.
Ray Charles 2 Ray Charles: darkness turned into light First, together with guitarist Gossady McGee, he founded the group “MacSon Trio”, and after some time began recording. His first hit, "Confession Blues" (1949), and the popular song "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951) were recorded on Swingtime Records. Then Charles signed a contract with the Atlantic record company: here he had much more creative freedom and experienced producers - Ahmed Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. It was under their leadership that Ray Charles began to move from a talented imitator of the styles of famous musicians to finding his own creative individuality. The single “Mess Around” (1953), the million-selling record with the song “The Things That I Used To Do” (recorded with bluesman Guitar Slim) and, finally, considered the first soul recording and reaching number one on the hit parade. the single “I Got a Woman” (1955) became milestones on the path of the future music legend of the 20th century. Working during these years mainly with gospel songs, with secular texts and blues ballads, Ray Charles creates a new fusion, electrifying the leisurely melancholic rhythms of religious hymns with energetic discharges of rhythm and blues. “Black” rock and roll owes a lot to this musician, who managed to captivate a huge audience of white listeners with traditional African music.
They say that “What`d I Say,” a landmark song of the soul style that incorporates rock, r&b, jazz and country, Ray composed during one of his performances: it was necessary to fill the time that he was obliged to play under his contract. It’s hard to say how many musicians, singers and composers “What’d I Say” later “started”, giving rise to new works. Subsequently, it was this incomprehensible flair and ability of Ray to penetrate into the essence of any style, the incredible freedom with which he mixed and fused styles and genres, ignoring their boundaries, determined his creative credo.
Charles was now moving in new directions: he recorded songs with the participation of large symphony orchestras and famous jazz musicians; turned to the country style and, having recorded the album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music”, achieved something incredible at that time for a black musician - he entered the “turnover” of this typically “white” style of music. The move to ABC Records not only elevated Ray to the category of one of the highest paid musicians in the world at that time, but also significantly expanded his creative freedom and opportunities. Surprise! Instead of dabbling in innovative experiments, the musician began recording pop songs close to the mainstream. Bigbands, string quartets, large choirs singing back - Ray Charles's new arrangements were sharply different from the chamber works of the Atlantic era. Having moved to the most large mansion in Beverly Hills, the musician now periodically records so-called “pop and jazz standards”: “Cry”, “ Over the Rainbow", "Cry me a river", "Makin" Whoopy" and others. At the same time, his hits "Unchain My Heart", "You Are My Sunshine". "Hit The Road Jack" were also released.
However, another song still became a symbol of the ABC period. "Georgia On My Mind" (a composition by Broadway classic Hodja Carmichael, originally dedicated to a girl named Georgia) was declared the Georgia state anthem on April 24, 1979, and Ray Charles performed it at the statehouse. 19 years before this event, the musician canceled his concert in the state - in protest against racial segregation (according to the laws of that time, black and white spectators had to sit separately during his concert). For many years, Charles spoke out against racism, supported and financed the activities of Martin Luther King.
In contrast to his rapidly rising musical career, personal life Raya was quite turbulent. He tried drugs at the age of 17. From then on, until his arrest for heroin and marijuana possession in 1965 in Boston, the musician carried “this monkey on my back” (as he called his addiction to the potion). Ray underwent treatment at a Los Angeles clinic - and this saved him from a real prison sentence, which was replaced by a year of probation. He never returned to drugs, replacing them with the “Ray Charles Cocktail” - strong coffee with sugar and gin. “Sometimes I felt terrible, but as soon as I got on stage and the band started playing, I don’t know why, but it was like aspirin - you hurt, you take it and you don’t feel the pain anymore,” Ray recalled.
Relationships with women were also difficult. Two official marriages and 12 children from 9 women – short but powerful statistics. By the way, the musician bequeathed $1 million to each of his children.
“Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, were masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds." And rock'n'roll legend Billy Joel calls Charles "the owner of the most unique voice in pop music... He took squeals, screams, growls, moans and made music out of them."
Projects, concerts, performances around the world, recording new albums - Ray continued to work until his death from liver cancer in 2004. Thousands of fans said goodbye to the musician in the church, under the arches of which “Over the Rainbow” was played - a song chosen by Ray Charles himself.
And two months later it came out last album– “Genius Loves Company”, which included songs performed together with many outstanding musicians. In 2005 - another album - “Genius & Friends”, in 2006 - “Ray Sings, Basie Swings”, etc. Ray Charles is “a pioneer who swept away the barriers between secular and spiritual styles, between white and black pop music”; singer, awarded 17 Grammy Awards and officially named a Los Angeles Treasure; the musician, whose star is installed on the Hollywood Boulevard of Fame, and whose bronze busts are in all the Halls of Fame (rock and roll, jazz, blues and country), continues the main work of his life - albeit from other worlds.
His music touched everyone. American conductor and trumpeter Quincy Jones called it “pain transformed into joy, darkness turned into light.” Ray Charles himself said simply:
“Music has been around for a very long time and will be here after me. I was just trying to leave my mark, to do something good in music.”
That is why our today's hero has remained the standard for many, many musicians on our planet for many years in a row, as well as the number one star for all connoisseurs of quality music.
Early years, childhood and family of Ray Charles
Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany, located in central Georgia. His family was very poor, and therefore from a very early age great musician accustomed to lack of money and constant deprivation. Ray's father, Bailey Robinson, abandoned the family, leaving his two sons in the care of their mother and grandmother. After this, the unlucky father practically did not take part in the lives of his children, appearing in their house once a year at most.At the age of five, another serious shock occurred in the life of little Ray Charles. While swimming in a tub, his younger brother George drowned. The child died right before the eyes of the future musician. Five-year-old Ray tried to help his brother, but was unable to pull him out of the deep tub.
This event shocked our today’s hero so much that very soon he began to experience vision problems. By the age of seven, Ray Charles was completely blind. Subsequently, the version about psychological nature The musician's blindness was the most popular among all his fans.
However, many years later, American doctors who examined the musician put forward the version that the loss of vision occurred as a result of glaucoma.
Returning to the topic of the outstanding master’s childhood, we note that the turmoil in the musician’s life did not end there. Already in 1945, the singer lost his mother, thus remaining in the care of his elderly grandmother.
Perhaps it was a series of life blows that laid the foundations for the famous musical style Ray Charles. After all, his music always contained a lot of melancholy and very little joy...
Musical career of singer Ray Charles
Show interest in music lessons our today's hero started at an early age. While studying at a specialized school in the city of St. Augustine, the talented guy not only quickly mastered the Braille alphabet, but also learned to play the trombone, saxophone, piano, organ and some other instruments perfectly.Ray Charles. One of the most popular songs.
It was from this moment that his passion for music began. After all, there was essentially nothing else in his life.
At the age of seventeen, our today's hero moved to the large and vibrant Seattle, which at that time was considered the American capital instrumental music. Here such trends as soul, blues and jazz were especially popular. That’s why Ray Charles chose Washington state to continue his musical career.
In Seattle, our today's hero founded his first musical ensemble and soon it became quite popular in the northern United States. Famous performer Lowell Fulson invited him to work together. Subsequently, representatives of well-known record companies also began to approach Ray Charles with offers of long-term cooperation.
Thus, in 1949, our today’s hero recorded his first full-scale hit, “Confession Blues,” which very soon began to be heard even on federal radio stations in America. From that moment on, Ray Charles began to frequently tour various cities in the United States, giving small concerts and recording performances for national television.
Ray Charles - Confession Blues
In 1953, the talented black singer recorded the singles “It Should Have Been Me” and “Mess Around,” which three years later formed the basis of his first solo album, “The Great Ray Charles.”
Throughout his career, our today's hero has released more than a hundred (!) albums, as well as official recordings concert performances. Its geography tours stretches from the USA to Japan and from Germany to Russia. Many of his compositions - such as “Hit The Road Jack”, “You Are My Sunshine”, “Unchain My Heart” - became immortal hits. That is why the influence of Ray Charles on world music is very difficult to overestimate. As recognized figures in the scene note, it was the music of Ray Charles that laid the foundations for such trends as modern jazz, blues and even rock and R&B.
Among Ray Charles's awards is his own own star on the Walk of Fame, as well as 17 Grammy Awards, the Order of Arts and Letters, the National Medal of Arts and some other awards. Currently, the name of the great musician is listed simultaneously in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in the Jazz Hall of Fame. Several streets in the United States and even an entire post office are named after Ray Charles.
The last years of Ray Charles' life
IN last years Throughout his life, the artist was very ill. In 2002, he began to show symptoms characteristic of liver cancer. At some point, the great musician lost the ability to walk. He managed to speak with great difficulty. However, even despite this, before last days During his life, Ray Charles regularly worked in the studio, recording new tunes and performing keyboard parts for fresh compositions. 
On June 10, 2004, the outstanding master of music died at his home in Beverly Hills. Two months after his death, his final album, Genius Loves Company, was officially released in the United States. At the farewell concert, the musician’s songs were performed by BB King, Elton John, Van Morrison and many other outstanding musicians who considered themselves friends and followers of Ray Charles.
Personal life of Ray Charles
Despite the fact that the musician was married only twice, he had many mistresses in his life. Thus, it is known for certain that the mothers of his twelve children (!) are nine (!) different women. Shortly before his death, our today's hero gave each of them one million dollars as a last gift.The musician spent the last years of his life with a woman named Norma Pinella
