Ray Charles Guesting In Venezuelan TV Show

Ray Charles and Renny Ottolina, c. 1970.

Renny Ottolina was a Venezuelan variety TV superstar. In the 70's his major success was Renny Presenta, produced for VTV, where he brought international guests like Charles Aznavour, Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to the studio. In the clips below, Renny can be seen... disturbing a jazz piano solo by Ray Charles.
In the photo at the right Brother Ray sports another suit jacket than in the YouTube video. Is it from another show?

Who recognizes the tune? Who knows if more footage has survived?

Renny Ottolino, while campaigning for the presidency, died "in a strange air incident" in 1976.

Ray Charles Promoting 音楽マイ・ラブ

In 1991 (or was it 1990?) Ray Charles helped the the tv show 音楽マイ・ラブ (Music My Love) to promote themselves.

Ray Charles Live In Roanoke

Someone in the audience made a (mediocre) recording of Ray Charles' concert at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke (VA) on September 1, 1984. The setlist went like:

1. Intro + Metamorphosis
2. Let The Good Times Roll (start missing)
3. Georgia On My Mind
4. Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
5. I've Got News For You
6. Some Enchanted Evening
7. If You Wouldn't Be My Lady
8. Crying Time
9. Eleanor Rigby
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. Knock On Wood
12. Baby Please Don't Go
13. What'd I Say
14. Outro

Seeing Ray Charles, despite his blindness, navigate a set of narrow, sharp-turning stairs quicker than a sighted person might, programmer Philip Poff remembered, “Ray came flying down those steps. He shocked us so much that we were almost dumbstruck.”

Ray Charles Ft In Le Spectacle Noir

Le Spectacle Noir was a 45 minute ORTF documentary directed by Armand Ridel, first broadcast by RTF 1 on August 30, 1972. It presented an impressionistic, kaleidoscopic mix of existing films and documentaries with contemporary street scenes, concert footage and interviews with jazz and r&b stars.
With a.o. Ray Charles (contributing a good, but truncated, version of I've Got A Woman, from a concert in circa 1972), Count Basie, Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong, Cecil Taylor, Miriam Makeba, and Jimmy Hendrix (from the Woodstock movie).
The film has been archived by INA, ID: CPF86653022.

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:

We're Gonna Make It (The Raelettes)

Until now* I've confused the description of this Raelettes live-song, which was on the band's repertoire between 1978 and 1984, with the We're Gonna Make It-track from the Renaissance album.

This actual tune was written by Billy Preston. Rene Hall penned the arrangement for the band.

Live:
'78 LC Antibes
'84 LC Viareggio
'84 LC Warsaw - Released**
'86 LC Toyohashi

*Thank you, Steve Sigmund. **Search for Ray, then page-search for Warsaw, then go to ~39:20.

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 On The David Frost Show

A while ago Reelin' In The Years, a great resource for licensed footage of blues and jazz music, submitted this clip of Ray Charles, singing America The Beautiful. It doesn't match any entry in their online database, but it turns out to be from the the final episode (#209) of the 4-season series of the David Frost Show, aired on July 7, 1972. The other guests were senator Edward Kennedy (who discussed the book To Ask Why Not: Robert Kennedy) and singer Carly Simon.



Ray performed the tune on David's special request (from 12"00'):

Ray Charles Interviewed By Ralph Emery

Country music disc jockey and television host Ralph Emery interviewed Brother Ray sometime in the early 1980s. Their discussion on the Maxwell House commercial seems to place it in 1981 or 1982. I guess it comes from Emery's weekly, syndicated radio show, distributed by Show Biz Inc. Each week Emery would profile a guest star, while playing the hottest country hits.