Live [Live]

Ray Charles | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: July 7, 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002IKO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,120 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

Ray Charles Live brings together two concert LPs recorded at 1958's Newport Jazz Festival and a 1959 Atlanta stadium show. Capturing both the inexorably cathartic (an impossibly slow "Drown in My Own Tears") and effortlessly blasting (several bluesy big- band tunes) natures of the era's Charles gigs, it's another must-own for his fans. --Rickey Wright

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words cannot express ..., June 27, 2000

By 

Will Flannery (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

the greatness of this album. Ray was touring with his band in the 50's, and they played as a concent in a stadium it Atlanta. An engineer at one of the radio stations recorded the occasion on a one track tape recorder using a single microphone. The result was issued as an LP, "Ray Charles in Atlanta", and it is one of the most extraordinary albums of all time. First, the recording is technicaly perfect. The band is heard with perfect clarity and balance, and, the audience is also picked up, and you can hear the shouting, whooping, the give and take with the audience, and the extraordinary energy in what was a typical concert of Ray Charles playing to his own audience. Many of the tunes were or became stone classics, known to every funk and blues musician in the country and to most of the population at large. Ray Charles was revered like no other musician.

In the same time frame, Ray Charles took his band to the Newport Jazz festival for what was a controversial appearance. Odd, in that this is one of the greatest jazz bands of all time. Again the proceedings were recorded, and issued as "Ray Charles at Newport". Again, it was an astonishing record. The tunes from these two LP's, ".. in Atlanta" and ".. in Newport" make up this CD. The tunes make up the bulk of Charles' best recorded work. It is some of the most remarkable music America has produced. These are the best records Charles has made.

Why is this music so good? Ray Charles is a vocalist unlike any other. He does not 'sing' a song, he communicates the song to you soul to soul. He drives it into your brain. The tunes on this record are his full effect masterpieces. These include uptempo numbers like "I Got a Woman", "Talking 'bout You", "Tell the Truth", and "What'd I Say", hard driving slow blues like "The Night Time is the Right Time", and the slow show stoppers like "A Fool For You" and "Drown in My Own Tears". Once Dizzy Gillespie played with Ray, and he commented after the gig that he walked halfway across the stage between beats one and two of "Drown in My Own Tears". There are also jazz tunes that the band played to pump the crowd, like "Hot Rod", "Blues Waltz" and "Frenesi". The band was so unique that these tunes constitute their own category, they are straight ahead jazz, but only the Ray Charles band could play jazz this hard driving and funky.

Every tune on this CD deserves comment and analysis. There are no weak sisters. Every tune is a classic. Take for example, "The Night Time..". The sax intro played by David "Fathead" Newman is a classic in itself! The tune is probably the most lowdown blues ever recorded. It is the definition of funk. Marjorie Hendrik's verses are the wildest wild abandon you will hear on record. And when Ray pulls it all together at the end, it is ultimately down and refined at the same time, and also ultimately hard driven and swinging. This is the essence of Ray, the rawest yet at the same time the most nuanced voice, carrying more energy than any other voice but at the same time refined beyond description.

Well, what did you expect? Ray Charles is a genius. That's no jive. This CD is Ray Charles at his best. It is in some ways like a religious screed.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best CD ever, August 5, 2004

By 

G McLemore "DHHS Charles Lover" (Jekyll Island, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

As a junior in high school (Druid Hills), I and several of my classmates attended the radio station WAOK 25th anniversary show at Herndon Stadium in Atlanta (1959). The Ray Charles set was one of many. The show was and remains the best I've ever seen, but the performance by Ray Charles, his band and the Raylettes was without equal. The energy of "What'd I Say", "tell The Truth" and "Night Time Is The Right Time" was incredible. The set was recorded on a WAOK monural tape recorder and later played over the air. The response of the radio audience was overwhelming, resulting in the ultimate release of the Atlantic album (which we bought at the Central Record Shop at 5 points, on the day it was released). We were white teenagers who loved the music played on WAOK (a predominately black station) and even then we realized it was never going to get any better than
Ray Charles on a May 1959 evening. I still can't believe he's gone, but then I crank up "What'd I Say" or "Tell The Truth" and the years melt away...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest discs you'll ever hear, October 23, 2001

By 

Joe Craig "Joe" (London UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

We all know that Ray Charles is untouchable as the wonderful genius that he is - you don't need me to tell you that. What you might not know is that this splicing together of two live performances contains versions of some of his tunes so good that, if you don't hear them before you die, you'll never have lived, if you see what i mean.
What's more, you should be told that it isn't just me that thinks this: this record was selected recently as one of the '100 soul albums you must own' by MOJO magazine in the UK.
So buy it already.