A Message From The People, Revisited By Band Of Heathens

Quincy Jones himself has endorsed it?! WTF? It sounds as if Michael Bolton produced it!
The Band of Heathens have announced their remarkable new album, A Message From The People, to be released in September 2018. It entails a complete re-interpretation of Ray Charles‘ 1972 album with the same title.
Their vision is okay and relevant: the band said they were motivated to re-record the elpee "because of its moving commentary on social justice, abuse-of-power, and its vision for a stronger, more-unified America". Their teaser, a version of America The Beautiful can be listened to below. I fear this horror can't be compensated by the remaining tracks. Also read this and this.

When Did Ray Sing His First Blues?

Nothing much has been written about the publisher of Rock And Roll Roundup. All I know is his first name, Barry. He obviously had an ecclectic taste for contemporary music directed at 'teenagers', and he didn't discriminate between 'white' rock and roll and 'black' (rhythm and) blues. Although most articles seem to have been produced in coordination with record labels, it's clear that Barry liked decent copy and good photography. 

The quality didn't really help to survive on the market. I've found only two editions, from February and April 1957.

The latter issue had an intriguing article about Adam Timon, whose name scores 0 (zero!!!) hits on Google, YouTube and Discogs, and a two page spread about Ray Charles. 

Until 1960 Ray's story was hardly covered by the music press or the mainstream press. This rare article from February 1957 was clearly based on input by Atlantic Records. A few details are inconsistent with their usual PR talking points.

Publicity photo (mirrored) by James J. Kriegsman c. 1955.

Fifteen years old, after leaving the school for the blind in St Augustine, 

"[...] for two years [Ray] kicked around Florida with a variety of bands and combinations. [...] During this two-year period, Ray picked up a good deal of his knowledge of writing and arranging. [...] And somewhere along the line, he 'learned' to sing the blues. This singing came almost accidentally for Ray; he had to hum parts of his arrangements and ideas to express them to other musicians." 

I've never seen writing charts and humming mentioned as the accidental origin of Ray's blues singing, and it doesn't seem very probable to me. It raises a good question, though: when did Ray start singing in public as a professional?

"After two years of breaking in, as it were, Ray organized his own trio: bass and guitar to augment his piano and sax."

Up until today I have thought that Ray Charles started playing his alto saxophone in public when he started working with his small band, but I don't find it difficult to envision him also playing sax sometimes while working with the Maxin Trio, or - more incidentally - with the likes of Lowell Fulson, Big Joe Turner, or Joe Morris in the early 1950s. The repertoire of the Maxin Trio must have been broader than just the songs we know from the 45" records - did it also entail danceable r&b, and jazz?

Ray Charles, Playing A ???Hammond??? (Early 1960s)

I don't know of a Hammond with three keyboards... is this in a church or theatre? Location and photographer unknown.

Ray Charles On Fire At Roberts Show Club in Chicago (Apr 22 - May 03, 1959)

A Peggy Lee & Ray Charles Time Capsule From 1961

1. Intro; 2. I Got A (Wo)Man; 3. You Won't Let Me Go; 4. Just For A Thrill; 5. Yes, Indeed.

Peggy Lee was a huge fan of Ray Charles, who called her "Sister Peggy". She studio-recorded some of his tunes as early as 1959. A few years later she embedded an extensive Tribute To Ray Charles in her club show. At least two* of these shows, at the Basin Street East club in February 1961, were live-recorded: the February 9 "supper show" Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee Recorded At The Fabulous New York Club (Capitol T1520, 1961), and the February 8 "dinner show" Peggy At Basin Street East (Collectors' Choice CCM 2942, 2002).

Ray at that time was living in New York for a part of the year, and was a participant in Peggy's late night party entourage - probably thanks to Quincy "Brother Gump" Jones. Q wrote some charts for her, conducted her band when she returned to the Basin Street East in November 1961, and had a wild love affair with her.

Not too long before this second stint at the club, the three of them were part of a dinner event at the Backstreet Restaurant. One of the participants was a Dr. Robert Walters. For some reason, all guests were asked to sign the menu for him. This menu was auctioned in early March, 2018.
RR Auction House decribed the "Ray Charles" doodle (below) as a genuine signature, but that's a highly questionable authentication. Everybody who knew the Genius, also knew that he never signed anything. Nevertheless, seven or eight similar "signatures" from the years 1961 - 1964 have popped up over the past years.** My best guess is that this pseudo signature was routinely jotted down by Ray's personal assistant (or "valet" as he was often called), Duke Wade.
The "Mrs" added to the name may have been another result of Wade's discreet fantasy. It's much more feasible that the lady was Ray's current NYC girlfriend (or just one of them).

Peggy Lee writes, "Happy Birthday, with deep love always, Doctor Darlin," and  Quincy Jones adds, "To my wonderful district attorney — may all your days be as beautiful as you are." 

Program for the "Gala Premiere Dinner of Peggy Lee" at the Basin Street East nightclub on October 30, 1961.
It lists Quincy Jones as musical director.

Basin Street East photo holder: Jones posing with four people at the dinner event, one of whom was the recipient of the Back Street menu above, Dr. Robert Walter.

These memories, from Phoebe Jacobs, Peggy's closest friend, may glue all the information above together.
From: Peter Richmond, Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee (New York, Picador, 2007).

* The February 9 dinner show remains unissued. **For some fascinating discussions. see the Autograph Magazine forum.

Take-Off For Ray Charles Big Band's First Europe Tour

The complete Ray Charles troupe on October 17th or 18th, 1961, departing from Idlewild for their first European tour. From Cashbox, Nov. 4, 1961.

The Schiffman Index Cards On Ray Charles At The Apollo, 1957 - 1971

The Schiffmans, owners of the Apollo Theater, kept concise and hugely interesting notes on all acts he booked and re-booked. Each index card tracked the acts through the years, listing the dates of the opening nights (many gigs were for one week), the amounts paid out, and - above all - the Schiffman family's brutally honest comments on the act's quality and cash box success.
Up till now the notes were only known from the Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, but recently a few additional cards on the Apollo's top artists (Ray Charles, but e.g. also James Brown and Aretha Franklin) have popped up on Ebay.

How To Raycharlesify A Tune

Ray Charles' studio version from 1964 of A Tear Fell (single: ABC-45-10571; album: ABCS-480-4), as arranged by Sid Feller, was nice enough.
But only in this live version at the Pleyel Room in Paris, in a concert on October 8, 1968, the Genius could share what he really heard in the song, showing how beautiful it really was.
The original tune was written in 1955 by Dorian Burton and Eugene Randolph. Two of their grandchildren recently met in the comments section on YouTube:

Ray Charles Authoring Jack Sheldon Album's Cover Notes (1961)

Ray Charles' notes to Jack Sheldon's album.

In 1961 Ray Charles was at the pinnacle of his fame. It was also the year that he was first recognized and honored with a tribute album, by the soulful trumpeteer Jack Sheldon: A Jazz Profile Of Ray Charles (released by Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records, R-2004, July 1961).
Sheldon recorded the 12 tracks over two days in May (spanning a selection from five Ray Charles albums issued between 1957 and 1961) with his trio: Marty Paich on piano and organ, Joe Mondragon on bass and John Markham on drums. The elpee came out in July 1961, with a testimonial by Ray Charles, praising Sheldon, and adding some humble remarks regarding himself.

I assume that Paich - who was Ray's favorite arranger in his early ABC-Paramount years - was the linking pin between Charles and Sheldon. Highly remarkable was his organ playing, sounding almost exactly as awkward as Ray's Hammond wizardry on Genius + Soul = Jazz  (Impulse 2, February 1961), "[...] making it seem as if the instrument is being operated by a bellows", as Marc Meyers remarked in this excellent Jazz Wax article about this album.

Meyers made 3 of the tunes available online (I wish someone would send me a copy of the complete album;-): When Your Lover Has Gone, Moonlight in Vermont, and One Mint Julep.

Ray Charles And The Florida Playboys, A Short Adventure

Ray Charles loved to reminisce about his earliest endeavors in country music. Shortly after his seventreenth birthday, in 1947, he landed a gig with the Florida Playboys. In Michael Lydon's biography, Ray Charles - Man And Music, the story is that "[o]ne audition convinced the Playboys that RC could play country music with a genuine flavor, and they hired him, no questions asked about race. For several months he gigged with the band, playing current country hits like Kentucky Waltz in white honky-tonks in and around Tampa, learning to yodel, and singing Waiting For You as his featured number. [...]. RC's interlude with the Playboys, though brief, planted a seed in Ray Charles' music that would lie dormant for a decade before sprouting. Yet this important event has left barely a trace in any but Charles' own memory. Gossie McKee and Manzy Harris [...] nor Ray remembered any names. [...]. The histories of some bands, however, are written on the wind, and the other Playboys may have forgotten the nights with RC [...]."
Of course, it were not the Playboys who were crucial for Charles' love for country music. That came from listening to the radio, especially to WSM's Grand Ole Opry shows, ever since he was a toddler.

The Florida Playboys, not too long after Ray left. This photo, with guest
Hank Williams, was made at WJHP.

Up until recently, all efforts to corroborate Ray's vague memories with contemporary sources have failed (including mine, miserably). But in 2013 Marshal Rowland, a former steel guitar player and an owner of radio stations in Georgia and Florida, published his memoirs, Fertilizer 'tween my toes, a true story about a country boy finding his success and happiness in country music and owning radio stations.*
Rowland remembers how he was a fan of "Tiny Grier and the Florida Playboys on the radio on a station [WJHP] out of Jacksonville. [...] They came on [live] twelve thirty every day". After finishing highschool, he decided to contact Grier. "The band had hired a young black fellow named Ray Charles [...]. He had tried out and played with them for a few days and then abruptly left. About the same time he left, two others, PeeWee Jenkins and Cliff Austin, also left. [Grier] told me he needed musicians to keep his band going and the radio program alive and well."
"A few days" is a better match with Ray's early career timeline than the "several months"-reconstruction by Lydon. Obviously, his adventures with the Playboys were limited to a part of October 1947.

In this interview Ray shared a few more memories.

The daily Playboys radio show on Jacksonville's WJHP is a new detail in Brother Ray's Playboys legend. It's highly probable that Ray participated in at least a few of these broadcasts.
Rowland described the show's format as it was during his membership of the band: "In a typical thirty-minute program, usually the leader Sleepy Gibbs would sing two or three songs and Marvin Phillips, Tiny Griers son-in-law, would also sing two or three songs. The steel-guitar player and the fiddle player, Luther Moore, would each play one or two numbers [...]".

*Many thanks to Joël Dufour for sharing this information.

Bobby and Ray (1966)

Ray Charles, taking over the cockpit of his company plane "the Buzzard", a Viscount 400 (tail# N923RC), during a flight
 from LA to NYC on May 7, 1966.

On May 7, 1966, Ray Charles' company plane, the Buzzard, carried the complete troupe (1 genius, 4 Raelettes, 16 musicians, manager Joe Adams, a roadie and Ray's personal assistant) from Los Angeles to New York.

Caption from Life: "In his 50-seat private plane, Ray talks to a control tower. He likes to sit up in the co-pilot's seat and knows so much about the operation of the plane that, in an emergency, he could take over. 'That would really be flying blind, baby.'"

One of the cats in the back of the plane was Bobby Womack. who was hired as a guitar player in the first leg of the Ray Charles 1966 USA tour (which started on March 22 and ended in July). In his biography Midnight Mover: The True Story of the Greatest Soul Singer in the World (John Blake, 2007), he shared a few vivid memories of flying with Ray:

“A blind man playing chess was one thing, but flying a plane - now that was different. The first time it happened it tripped me out. I got aboard the rig we were flying on. It seated about 40 and all the band was there. It was Ray Charles’ own plane and I saw him up front in the cockpit clicking all kinds of switches and flipping buttons.
[...] [A]s soon as we hit the air, the buckle was off and Ray raced up the aisle towards the cockpit. I said, 'Where's he going? He never runs like that when he's going on stage to play the piano.'
The pilot handed the controls to Ray. One of the band filled me in. 'Ray always takes over the controls.'
That freaked me out. 'Oh, Jesus me. Dear Lord,' I prayed. [...]."

The band's tour bus, on its way from NY airport to Carnegie Hall on May 7, 1966. Bobby Womack (still a bit shaky 
after the adventures in the Buzzard?) is just visible between Ray and manager Joe Adams. 

Ray only rarely traveled with the band bus, so the scene in the photo above was probably just staged for Bill Ray's photo-essay in Life Magazine*, which marked Ray's actual full comeback after his rehab year in 1965. The Life article was the result of a well planned PR effort to re-position Ray not only as a singer/composer/musician and band leader, but also as an omnipotent record music business mogul and a solid family man. A man who, despite being blind, wasn't disabled. A man who could "see" and manipulate his environment.

The auditions for Ray's 1966 "comeback band" probably had taken place by late February or early March. Bobby remembered:

"I sat at the audition with my guitar and a book of music in front of me. The book was about an inch thick. I didn't open the book. Ray walked in. He shouted out a bunch of numbers, like 48, 92, 31, 15.
Then he said, 'These are the songs that we're going to play on these page numbers [...]. I still didn't open the book, just looked ahead - waiting. Someone must have pointed that out. Ray said, 'You know, young man, you ought to open your book.
   I said, 'I don't read music, Mr Charles, I play by ear.'
   He laughed. Then spat out 31.
   [...] I left the book unopened, but joined in. [...] Suddenly Ray stopped the band. 'Second trumpet player. You are flat, tune up.' The guy tuned up.
   Ray kept switching song, going from one number to another, trying to lose me, I'm sure. I kept up. I was in there playing. He stopped the band. 'OK,' he said to me, 'just you and me play.' Then to the band, 'See what kind of ears this guy really got?'
   [...] He didn't know how I did it, but he was impressed."

On March 10 Stanley G. Robertson, staff writer of the Los Angeles Sentinel (and in 1963 freelancing as the writer - assigned by Joe Adams - of the brief biography that was published in Ray's concert brochures) wrote a newspaper article about attending a 'sneak preview' (together "with a cross section of people - college students, selected members of the press, radio, and television professions here, fellow musicians and recording and promotional people, and a few just plain Ray Charles fans") of "the New Sound of The Genius".
Adams, who hated all band musicians because they all loathed him, fed the journalist with a few venomous squibs about Ray's pre-1965 band, plus some erroneous French:

"He has a completely new band. None of the old faces, the stars of former years, such as David 'Fathead' Newman, are with him. He has assembled a group of musicians who as a unit sound much sharper and much more cohesive than the old band. As individuals, they possess more enthusiasm, more drive, and more, as the French say, 'joie de vie' than did the old group."

On March 22, 1966 Ray's 'new' band began touring. The line-up was: Steve Hufsteter - lead trumpet; Herbie Anderson, Marshall Hunt, Ike Williams - trumpets; Henry Coker, Sam Hurt, Keg Johnson, Fred Murrell - trombones; Preston Love, Curtis Peagler - alto saxophones; Curtis Amy, Clifford Scott - tenor saxophones; Leroy Cooper - bariton saxophone; Bobby Womack - guitar; Edgar Willis - bass, band leader; Billy Moore - drums; The Raelettes: Gwen Berry, Lillian Fort, Clydie King, Merry Clayton.

Bill Ray's Life reportage started at a band rehearsal at Ray's still quite new RPM International Studio in LA, in March - probably also early that month - 1966.

This picture of Bobby at this rehearsal strongly resembles his memories of
his audition (read quote above).

Touring band's rehearsal at RPM, LA, in March '66. With all four Raelettes (L-R: Gwen Berry, Lillian Fort, Clydie King,
 Merry Clayton), Ray, the trumpet section (with Steve Hufsteter's full profile), most of the bone section, bass player Ed
 Willis, drummer Billy Moore and Bobby Womack on guitar.

The complete group on stage during Ray's walk-off at Carnegie Hall, on May 7, 1966. Bobby Womack standing left from 
bass player Ed Willis.

Bobby's suit looks good enough on these photos, but in his biography he recalled a previous, more precarious, situation (which was maintained by Joe Adams until the very end of the big band):

"To play in the Ray Charles band, all the new guys had to get themselves kitted out in the house style. Man, that was the opposite of slick.
   To save money, the suits were handed down. Every musician who left Ray's band or retired passed their suit on to the new guy, so these outfits were well past retirement age. They were high water pants, but high water hadn't been in fashion that century. Also, the last guy who wore my jacket must have weighed 300 pounds. [...] It was a whacky mess; the coat was supposed to be beige, but had faded yellow, there were patches in the ass. There were name tags in it going back to the stone age. [...] I'd go out front and whisper, 'Mr Charles, Mr Charles. Can I just sit?'
   'No, stand, young man. Go out there, they like you.'"

Womack was a great musician and a fine storyteller. In the discography added to Midnight Mover he claimed that he had contributed to all of Ray's 1966, 1967 and 1968 albums (Crying Time, Moods, Listen, Portrait). I doubt if he was consciously lying here, but regrettably probably none of that part of his story was true...
It's sad that probably nothing of Bobby's work during his period with the Ray Charles band was ever recorded, not during that tour, not in the studio.

* All photos by Bill Ray; except for the 2nd they are taken from a batch of so far unpublished rest materials from his shoots for the Life Magazine article published on July 29, 1966. The narrative to Bill's photos was written by Thomas Thompson, Music soaring in a darkened world - The comeback of Ray Charles. Pain and blindness have shaped his genius.

Bill Cosby & Ray Charles In Reno (1969)

Ad from Hayward Daily Review, 18 Dec.

For the week of 18 to 24 December 1969 Bill Cosby invited  Ray Charles to join him at his stint at Harrah's in Reno.
A few years later Cosby looked back on it like this:

"So goodbye, old sweethearts and pals"

Untitled, wordless blues, performed at the Olympia Theater in Paris on 18 May 1962.
Ray Charles - p, voc; Sonny Forriest - guitar; Edgar Willis - bass; Bruno Carr - drums.

First released in 2013 by Body & Soul as part of the album Ray Charles - Live In Paris; Volume 2. Cartoon by Mike Peters.

Potential youth delinquents dancing to Ray Charles' What'd I Say (1961)

Potential youth delinquents in San Francisco, dancing to What'd I Say, in Ask Me, Don't Tell Me, a 'PSA' produced for Youth For Service (1961):

Ray Charles In A Rhythm Group With Preston Epps And Jackie Wilson (1959/60)

Ray Charles playing his Wurlitzer, with (f.l.t.r.) DJ and promoter Art Laboe, bongo player Preston Epps, and singer Jackie Wilson, shaking samba balls - probably posing for a promotional photo for "the season's most cosmopoliton event" at the Hollywood Palladium on July 23d, 1959.

Jim Marshall Catching Ray Charles' Shadow (1961?)

Photo by Jim Marshall, put up for auction by Christie's. Dated in 1960, but must be of later date since Ray's first big band was established in 1961. The venue could be Longshoreman's Hall in San Francisco on Dec. 29, 1961 - where Marshall shot a series with a.o. this photo backstage (if so, prob. with Bruno Carr - d; Sonny Forriest - g).

Ray Charles Band @ MIT (1961)

As far as I know, this is the second-ever picture of Ray Charles' big band.
"After an informal dinner, it was the popular jazz artist, Ray Charles, and his orchestra. An enthusiastic audience
attended the concert held in the Armory, which was followed by our own private performance - the annual pledge skit
and a 'jungle theme' party."

On November 4, 1961, the Ray Charles ("augmented") Big Band performed at the Armory in Boston on the occasion of MIT's yearly Junior Prom weekend. The 'Genius' signs on the music stands were new. The line-up must have been highly similar to the one in Paris, in late October '61, so that could well be John Hunt taking a trumpet solo in the shadows.

From MIT''s collegial newspaper, The Tech (Nov. 8, 1961).

Ray Charles' Iris By Francis Giacobetti (c 1990?)

Portrait of Ray Charles by Francis Giacobetti (c 1990?), in the Hymn series: 180 black and white portraits, combined with full color close ups of each person's iris.

Cf. Francis Giacobetti's website for more.

Rare Picture Of Ray Charles Fans At 1958 Dance Hall Gig In Rochester (NY)

Kids with (self-made?) Ray Charles hats at dance hall gig in 1958; photo by Paul Hoeffler. Almost certainly taken at Eddie's Roller Palace in Chestnut Street, Rochester (NY). More pictures: here.

Al Hall's Times With The Ray Charles Orchestra (1971)

(Sanifu) Al Hall, Jr. was a trombonist in the Ray Charles Band in 1971 and 1972. Today he shared the first of his memories of this period in a great blog article, My times with the Ray Charles Orchestra. Recommended reading!