His family moved to Greenville, Fla., when Charles was an infant. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother, Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. In so doing he changed what had previously been only a black and white territorial paper map of American music into a 3-D, solid terrain model, full of color. The great Ray Charles was an explorer who returned time and again from expeditions across musical boundaries to give us, in his own unique way, melodious stories and charts of his adventures. He left behind a long list of hits and Grammy awards and the musicians he influenced are as diverse in genre as the music he wrote, arranged, performed and recorded. Ray Charles died from acute liver disease Thursday June 10, 2004. Traces the career of "the kid from Red Bank" through Kansas City and into the later stages of his life as a bandleader. May wrote many Swing era classics for Glenn Miller and Charlie Barnet and later for Sinatra and Nat Cole. The trumpeter, bandleader, composer and arranger died Jan. This extensive biography spans the entire lengthy career of the jazz legend. The jazz guitar great died May 6th, 2004 and left behind a vast body of recorded jazz work.īenny Carter was one of the greatest arrangers and jazz musicians the genre has ever known. She later released a number of fine swinging albums for Norman Granz on his Clef, Norgran and Verve record labels. Not your typical big band “canary” Anita’s voice was heard soaring over the brassy bands of Gene Krupa and Stan Kenton during the Swing era. The prolific jazz pianist died 12-23-2007. His recordings with several incarnations of the Oscar Peterson Trio are superb to fans of straight ahead mainstream jazz that swings. Oscar Peterson performed as accompanist for a who’s who of jazz soloists and vocalists. Vocalist, piano, reeds, songwriter, arranger The legendary performer, known since the 1950s as "The Genius," died June 10th, 2004 of liver disease. Augustine School for the Blind to keep going.Crossed countless perceived musical boundaries throughout his career Being in the Jim Crow South, going through racism, being poor, black and then going blind, I just don’t know what he drew from or who he was able to latch on to at St. At the moment, you think the story is over. He was blind at seven and orphaned to St. He saw his brother drown at three, when he was four. His mother could not read, she was a single parent, they grew up extremely poor. My job, along with the Ray Charles Foundation, is to keep his legacy alive and remind the younger generation of his story. I was able to do that before he passed away. And, I’m telling my own life story as well. I wanted to make sure that, not only would people be able to listen to his music, but to immortalize him by making a movie about his life. Because I didn’t know anything about producing, it took me a while to get acclimated to Hollywood. And I said, “Look, let me come here and help you brand.” I actually bought the rights from him to do “Ray” in 1989. (Ray Charles Jr/Vibrato.)Ĭharles Jr.: When I came to work for my father, I left a successful financial advisor position. Although, I felt your father received his proper respects, is the goal now to keep the legacy going? “Ray! Salute For America” in Los Angeles paid tribute to the musical icon. Zenger: Some legends aren’t celebrated until they are gone.
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