Ray Charles
Rare
Genius, The Undiscovered Masters
Total Time: 41:43
Cost: CD: $ 13.99
Digital
Download: $ 8.99
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1.
Love's Gonna Bite You Back
2. It
Hurts To Be In Love
3. Wheel Of Fortune
4. I'm Gonna Keep On Singing
5. There'll Be Some Changes Made
6. Isn't It Wonderful
7. I Don't Want No One But You
8. A Little Bitty Tear
9. She's Gone
10. Why Me, Lord? (Duet w/Johnny Cash)
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Issue
#139
Nov ‘10
If
you need me to tell
you who Ray
Charles
is, and why he was a musical genius, a
legend, an icon, an institution – Then you’ve got
some catching up to do – Do
it.
Rare Genius, The
Undiscovered Masters
is a historic piece of work. It doesn’t diminish
Ray’s
legendary status (as most posthumous releases tend to), yet acclaims
it, and
rightfully so. Culled from years of studio sessions, specifically the
70s, 80s,
& 90s – years when many critics wrote off
Ray’s releases as coddling to
mainstream contemporary rather than focusing on his trademark
R&B, soul,
jazz, blues, pop, and country mix – this entirely new release
(none of these
tracks have ever been released before) silences those critics with what
measures up as one of Ray’s most complete masterpieces.
Taking in the scope and
depth of Ray’s work, the people at Concord
Music
Group,
specifically John
Burk,
realized that his
musical ability, vision, and most notably his voice were just as
powerful in
the latter stages of his career and set out, not only to prove it, but
to do
right by “Brother Ray.” Not only did Burk put
together a testament of Ray’s
musical genius, but he did so in album form, capturing the essence of
why
musicians go into the studio, write, arrange, and record. The song
selection
and sequencing here pays as much a tribute to the artist as the songs
themselves
do.
The album opens with a
lamenting tale of a man who has found redemption in his confession of
not
treating her right; Love’s
Gonna Bite
You Back
is set to a “Muscle Shoals” style horn arrangement
that is
amazing in the way that it rocks. But it’s Ray’s
vocals that capture the soul
here. It
Hurts To Be In
Love
plays off the 1st track’s punch and
slides us
down & dirty with a smoky lounge infused, old-school, funky,
big band,
swinging jazz number that dances us happy.
Once Ray has welcomed
us into his element, he shows us where it’s at with the first
of three musical
standards. Wheel
Of Fortune,
along with There’ll
Be Some Changes Made
and A
Little Bitty Tear, shows
us how Ray’s
masterful command of voice, piano, and band arrangements can elevate
any
style/genre to amazing emotional heights that pontificate the glory of
music.
The center piece here
is I’m
Gonna Keep On
Singing,
a funky, get down groovy testament to “Do
it,” complete with Gospel choir
backing singers and old-school spoken word rap that ride
Ray’s electric
keyboards and horns, horns, and more horns into a rollicking jam. Isn’t
It Wonderful
keeps that theme alive
with lyrics that are quick to point out: “While
we’re talking / We could be getting it on.”
Meanwhile, the band takes Ray’s
vocal cues and lays out some nice runs to move the story along to the
bedroom
of complete bliss.
With I
Don’t Want No One But You
and She’s
Gone,
Ray takes the central
themes of lost/losing love and gives them each a unique arrangement and
reading. The former gives us grand scale piano work with low horns
expressing
the mood and attitude in a classic 70s arrangement, while the latter is
a
Country, Honky-Tonk affair that is more akin to the barroom than the
ballroom.
The album closes with “Why
Me, Lord?,” a duet with Johnny
Cash
that was never before
released. This gem of a Kris
Kristofferson gospel homage
is amazing in the way that the music is simply there to allow the
vocals to
take center stage and breathe life into the words.
Do you have some catching up to do on Ray Charles? If so, maybe you
should start here. Let Rare
Genius, The
Undiscovered Masters take
center stage and breathe life into your musical world
– Do it.
Rare Genius, The
Undiscovered Masters by Ray Charles
is available now. CD: $13.99
Digital
Download: $
8.99
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