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14 June 2016

Ray Charles Live In Wantagh (1992)

On June 22, 1992 Ray Charles, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Dr. John and The Fabulous Thunderbirds were found jamming at the Downtime Bar in New York City, where they announced their Blues Festival '92 Tour. As far as I know the plans only materialized in a limited series of concerts in June and September.
On September 2 the group played the Jones Beach Amphitheater in Wantagh (NY). Ray's show was taped from the audience (in a reasonably good quality)*. The setlist was:
  1. Intro show
  2. Woody 'n' Bu (Ray Charles Orchestra)
  3. Intro Ray Charles 
  4. Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
  5. Busted
  6. Georgia On My Mind
  7. Come Rain Or Come Shine
  8. Teardrops From My Eyes
  9. Ellie, My Love
  10. The Good Life
  11. The Brightest Smile in Town
  12. Intro Raelettes
  13. I Want Your Love (ft Estella Yarbrough)
  14. I Can't Stop Loving You
  15. I Believe To My Soul
  16. What'd I Say
  17. Outro
The line-up must have came close to this: 
Ted Murdock, Ken Scharf, David Hoffman, Chuck Parrish - trumpets; Wayne Coniglio, Marc Fields, Mike Guerrier, Steve Sigmund - trombones; Steve Elliott, Al Jackson, Al Waters, Rudy Johnson, Jim Farnsworth - saxophones; Peter Turre - drums; Kenny Carr - guitar; Benoît Grey - bass; Ernest Vantrease - keyboards; The Raelettes: Trudy Cohran, Pamela Diggs, Paula Moye, AngieWorkman, Estella Yarbrough.
* Special thanks to George Rue.

Ray Charles In Q&A With UCLA Students (1983)

On May 10, 1983 Ray Charles received the UCLA Distinguished Humanitarian Award. The event was "attended by nearly 1,000 students who gave him a standing ovation" after an extensive Q&A where Ray tried to avoid his usual answers.
He was well aware of the challenge of reaching 1,000 people with just his speaking voice. The audio was recently digitized by the UCLA Communications Studies Department.


06 June 2016

Ray Charles And Wiley Pitman, His Protector

This remarkable commercial was made for TrustE's Tracker (protection) software.
Uroš Perić - vocals; John Fresk - piano; Graham Currie - bass; Peter Auret - drums.

The song, in Ray Charles' late '40s style (actually, borrowing some late '50s grunts), was written and arranged by Adam Howard. Recording date: April/May 2016; Adam Howard - sound engineer.

Ad Title: Wiley Pitman and Five Notes That Changed a Life. Client: Tracker South Africa. Director: Kevin Fitzgerald. Creative Agency: House of Brave. Executive Creative Director: Vanessa Pearson. Writer: Dan Parmenter / Stefanus Nel / Conan Green. Art Director: Thereza Norton. Production Company: 0307 Films. Recording Studio: Produce Sound. Executive Producer: Jo Barber.