Customer Reviews

Blues + Jazz

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the younger generation who only knows Ray as the "old guy in the Pepsi commercials" and those familiar with only his popular and more commercially successful recordings, who want to get to the roots of the real soul of Ray Charles, this compilation is for you.

This 2 disc compilation includes many of Ray's earlier Atlantic Recordings from the 50's and 60's. The first disc consists of his blues recordings while the second reflects his explorations in the roots of jazz. Both jazz and blues purists will delight in Ray's vocal and instrumental piano blues stripped of the overproduction that characterizes so much of the blues and jazz genres today.

Beyond a couple of rough spots on a few of the earlier recordings, this is a collection of beautiful blues and jazz pieces with a fairly comprehensive 34 page liner notebook which includes information about each individual selection. If you are a blues, jazz or Ray Charles fan, this compilation won't disappoint.

40 tracks that fully justify Ray Charles' credentials as an exceptionally gifted blues singer and jazz piano player. But there's more, for hidden in here are several real gems including the rolling work-out of "Early in the Morning", the deeply gospel "I Believe to My Soul" and the ecstatic "What Would I do Without You". Best of all is his rarely found "Worried Life Blues" (originally released as "Someday Baby"): one of the saddest, most soulful renditions of the Big Maceo Merriweather classic you'll ever hear, featuring wonderfully sparse singing and some incredibly understated and controlled piano-playing that quite simply sum-up "the blues". Brilliant, and almost worth the price of the album on its own!

Even when he was cranking out hits on Atlantic, Ray Charles was true to his gospel-inflected blues, either vocal or instrumental. This is simple music that clearly comes from the heart and soul. One disc is smokey gin-joint vocal blues and the other is stripped down piano blues. Excellent work. No need for high production values, studio sweetening or pretense. This stuff satisfies. Four stars. (I'd go for five, but the sound is a bit rough in spots.)

The only way to find out about an artist is to dive into as much material as possible and find what you like.His country and western stuff was good but this is the disc that I go for every time.Ray is at his soulful best right here playing in small combos and a few cuts with him by himself on piano,every song is a gem and even people who consider themselves casual fans will gain a new appreciation for this incredible mans talent.
He basically wrote the book on modern soul and r&b and these cuts prove it.If the greatest hits are where you started then you have arrived at one of the most important stops on the trip.
Great music from a great talent and it does not get any better than this.

I'm 48 in a couple of days, but I bought this cd set about 15 years ago. So I was still in my early thirties when I first purchased this set. I live in Jacksonville, FL. I am a white male. Ray Charles for me was really just almost some sort of myth. Anything I knew about Ray Charles must have been planted way down in memory or in my subconsciousness. What I am saying IS, that I had NEVER listened to Ray Charles before this set. I took a CHANCE
on this set, a chance on LIKING the music of Ray Charles, some old black guy from way back. And WOW, was I ever rewareded for taking a chance on the old "black guy", on two genre's of music that I really knew nothing about. This is a fantastic set of Ray Charles at his very best. Ray's BLUES are some of the BEST you will EVER HEAR. Ray's touch on the PIANO is like none you ever hear as well. And Ray has that deep resevoir of blues and soul in his voice that is unmatched. If you never heard any other Ray Charles you would understand what some of the best music this guy ever was by giving this set a chance. Take a chance on this set and become a Ray Charles fan as I did.

I also bought the Ray Charles Atlantic years boxset, the three cd boxset. I am considering buying the 8 cd complete Reay Charles Atlantic Years 53-59 set. I think all of the music on this two cd set was made while Ray was on the Atlantic label. Some may have come a little earlier. Anyway, this is a CLASSIC set of music. And there is a FINE collection of pictures and text which makes of the extensive booklet. You will be very happy with this set.

Ray Charles deserves his own genre. There is something unmistakable about what Ray Charles brought to music, I'd venture to say it was his very own Soul! If you're searching for an example of this, it's all here in this collection. Your spine will tingle and your skin will crawl. This is beyond just good! Stunning and then some!

RAY YA DID IT AGAIN DISC #2 i listen passivley till ya grabed my ear and said listen hear. and i did over,over &OVER AGAIN,& again and then inspiration struck like a big ol'e mack truck you keep on a written those sweet melodies and i'll do my best to keep written great lyric's to your great songs the wordsmith13 is hot on your trail and ready to whale drop a dime wordsmith13@msn.com

GOD BLESS RAY CHARLES HE HAS NO HANDICAPS.AFTER LISTINING TO THE SECOND DIC THE 7th SONG FASANATED ME. THEN I REALIZED THAT'SWEET SIXTEEN BARS IS AN INSTRAMENTAL. THE MUSIC INSPIRED ME AND I WROTE LYRIC'S TO THE SONG . I ENTERED THE SONG IN A NATIONAL CONTEST AND I WON. IF RAY IS INTRESTED HE CAN REACH ME AT WORDSMITH13@MSN.COM.