Ray Charles (Complete!) Concert In Antibes In 1982

Video still.

On July 20, 1982 Ray Charles performed at the Jazz à Juan Festival in Antibes/Juan-les-Pins. I've posted before about a selection of 6 tunes (#6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 in the list presented below) that survived from a TV broadcast by France 1.
It turns out that the - sumptuous, 1h 54m - complete concert was also recorded for French radio (produced by André Francis; INA ID PHD86074564). Ray and the band were in excellent form, and the quality of the audio is great (in spite of some minor microphone problems for The Raelettes).

The complete setlist was:

01. Smokin' at Hungry Joe's (Ray Charles Orchestra)
02. Easy Living (Ray Charles Orchestra)
03. Samba De Elencia (Ray Charles Orchestra)
04. Wave (Ray Charles Orchestra)
05. Our Suite (Ray Charles Orchestra)
06. Let The Good Times Roll
07. Georgia On My Mind
08. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
09. Busted
10. Just Because
11. For Mamma
12. Some Enchanted Evening
13. Intro The Raelettes
14. I Want Your Love
15. Don't Change On Me (with Raelettes)
16. I Can't Stop Loving You
17. Hit The Road Jack
18. Crying Time (with Raelettes)
19. Knock On Wood (with Raelettes)
20. Baby Please Don't Go
21. What'd I Say
22. Outro

Video still.

Personnel:
Musicians: Carlos Chavez, Brian Pearcy, Dean Congin, Carmell Jones - trumpets; Dan Marcus, John Boice, Ismael (Mayo) Tiana, Steve Davis - trombones; Brian Mitchell, Clifford Solomon (bandleader) - alto saxophones; Ricky Woodard, Rudy Johnson - tenor saxophones; Louis Van Taylor - bariton saxophone; Tony Matthews - guitar; Jeff Takiguchi - bass; Rick Kirkland - drums; Ernest Vantrease - piano, organ. The Raelettes: Estella Yarbrough, Trudy Cohran, Ann Knox, Janice Mitchell, Helen Ross.

*INA Pro specifies "tuba" for Davis - sic! #18 (Crying Time) got a little Que Sera Sera-intro.

Ray Charles Live In Antibes (1982)

After almost two years of research for this blog, it's becoming increasingly rare to find video footage which is entirely new to me. But last week Hector Tarín Nieto, a young Ray Charles enthusiast from Valencia in Spain,  surprised me with the message that he had found a video with (parts of) the concert at the Antibes Jazz Festival, on July 20, 1982. The track list doesn't contain any big surprises, but the overall quality is good, and this concert's version of Just Because alone made it worthwhile to watch the program.

(Video still).

The title cards make it clear that the taping was directed by veteran Jean-Christophe Averty, and that the program was aired by France 1.
So far I haven't found a trace of the whereabouts of the source materials of this program.* It's not impossible that Averty, as he did in earlier instances, used the contents of the concert for two Ray Charles specials, and that the remainder of the concert has also survived in the INA vaults (four days later this was the setlist of a concert in the UK).

1. Let The Good Times Roll
2. Georgia On My Mind
3. Oh What A Beautiful Morning
4. Busted
5. Just Because**
6. Some Enchanted Evening

* France 1 was privatized in the 1980s, which is probably the reason why the program can't be found in the database of INA, the French public television and radio archive. Also see the comment to this post: it could be that this program was aired on October 26, 1984. ** In the video, in one of the funniest title corruptions ever, the tune is titled "Just A Bounce".

Ray Charles Live in Antibes (1961 - 2001)

Ray's concerts at Antibes span his whole international live career. After his debut at the edition of 1961 it took him 15 years to return, but after 1976 he came back every 2 or 3 years: in 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1997, 1999, and 2001. All of his visits to Antibes are documented on film, video, or audio.

Jazz has been part of Antibes' musical landscape since the mid 1920’s. The music was introduced to Antibes by the American artist and jazz music connoisseur Gerald Murphy and his visiting guests, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald.
During its second season, Juan’s new casino welcomed a troupe of Charleston dancers one evening. Captivated by the atmosphere of this crazy night, the Murphy’s organised a sumptuous private party which was to inspire Scott Fitzgerald’s most famous novel, Tender Is the Night, and the Murphy’s lifestyle in Antibes would serve as a model for his other masterpiece, Les Enfants du Jazz.
In 1928, Gerald left Antibes for Hollywood where the film maker King Vidor asked him to be his advisor for the shooting of Hallelujah, the first film played entirely by black actors and dedicated to their culture.
Jazz in Juan, at this period, remained carefree. As early as 1927, the Auberge du Pin Doré welcomed the Blue Lagoon Orchestra, and the following year, the inauguration of the Pré-Catelan took place to the sounds of Danny’s Jazz Band. In 1932, Juan celebrated the 250th anniversary of champagne and for this tribute to Dom Pérignon, the new club Maxim’s accommodated no less than three orchestras: jazz, tango and rumba.
Sidney Bechet married in Antibes in 1951 and organized one of the biggest street parties ever seen on the French Riviera. At the event that Picasso painted his famous La joie de vivre masterpiece. After Bechet’s death in 1959, the first Jazz à Juan was held to pay tribute to his talent and passion for jazz (the event was organized by Jacques Hébey and  Jacques Souplet). Since then, at the heart of the Pinède Gould, the longest-running European jazz festival, Jazz à Juan, takes place each summer.
The 1960 edition was the origin of a number of other festivals that spread throughout Europe (Claude Nobs, creator of the major European jazz event that we know as Montreux, said "If I hadn’t stopped by at Antibes, Montreux would not have existed"). It attracted many of the great names of the time, including Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.
The following year, 1961, Ray Charles came for the first time. He came back (the story goes, but I fail to see the direct connection, BS;-) so many times that Juan les Pins was twinned with the "French Quarter" in New Orleans.

Ray Charles in France
Ray was immensely popular in France. Jazz Hot magazine started featuring him in 1959, followed him for 10 days in 1961, put him on the cover in 1961 and in 1962, and kept on featuring him closely until the end.