adam2434
04-19-2008, 12:18 AM
I was a casual fan of Ray Charles, but recently I've gotten into his early stuff from the 50's on Atlantic. I did not realize how many of his early songs are some of my favorites that have been covered by other artists.
I'm wowed by his vocals and piano playing on these recordings. As far as I'm concerned, his vocal and piano chops and originality stand up to any contenders in the R&B and Blues genres. I did not know he was so Blues influenced early on. You can hear the influence of Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker, and Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) on these early tracks. In fact, he worked with some of these cats and covered some of their songs in this period.
You can also hear his own musical voice developing in this period. You can feel the progression of how Blues was sped up into early R&B (which blurs the lines with early Rock and Roll) and then how he added Gospel to form a new sound which became Soul. That probably sounded cliché, but you can really sense this evolution in his stuff from the 50's. He was also a killer straight-up Jazz musician, as evidenced by these recordings.
These observations come from the box set Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959). I can't say that I like every song or every musical direction he took in this period, but there is some really great, classic stuff here, as Ray fans already know.
Some of this stuff is so good, I just had to give a shout.
I'm wowed by his vocals and piano playing on these recordings. As far as I'm concerned, his vocal and piano chops and originality stand up to any contenders in the R&B and Blues genres. I did not know he was so Blues influenced early on. You can hear the influence of Charles Brown, Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker, and Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) on these early tracks. In fact, he worked with some of these cats and covered some of their songs in this period.
You can also hear his own musical voice developing in this period. You can feel the progression of how Blues was sped up into early R&B (which blurs the lines with early Rock and Roll) and then how he added Gospel to form a new sound which became Soul. That probably sounded cliché, but you can really sense this evolution in his stuff from the 50's. He was also a killer straight-up Jazz musician, as evidenced by these recordings.
These observations come from the box set Pure Genius - The Complete Atlantic Recordings (1952-1959). I can't say that I like every song or every musical direction he took in this period, but there is some really great, classic stuff here, as Ray fans already know.
Some of this stuff is so good, I just had to give a shout.