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25 February 2010

Ray Charles Live In Concert (1964)

  1. Intro
  2. Swing A Little Taste (Ray Charles Orchestra) 
  3. I've Got A Woman 
  4. Margie
  5. You Don't Know Me
  6. Hide Nor Hair
  7. Baby Don't You Cry
  8. Makin' Whoopee 
  9. Hallelujah I Love Her So 
  10. Don't Set Me Free (with Lillian Fort)
  11. What'd I Say
  12. Finale (Pop Goes The Weasel) 
Original labels.
Recorded during a concert at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on 20 September 1964. The album discography on the official Ray Charles website says, no doubt on instigation of Joe Adams (also cf. last paragraph of this post), that "Ray had no idea that this concert was being recorded. Ray's manager Joe Adams came up with the idea. The result was so good that ABC purchased a Cadillac for Adams to show their appreciation."

Album: ABC/Paramount 500, January 1965.

Extended re-release
Concord Records' track list of the extended, remastered CD release of the album (April, 2011; the tracks in italic are new as compared to the original album; I've corrected obvious errors):
  1. Opening 
  2. Swing A Little Taste (Ray Charles Orchestra)
  3. One Mint Julep (with Ray Charles Orchestra)
  4. I've Got A Woman 
  5. Georgia On My Mind 
  6. Margie 
  7. You Don't Know Me 
  8. Hide Nor Hair 
  9. That Lucky Old Sun 
  10. Baby, Don't You Cry 
  11. In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down) (trumpet solo: Phil Guilbeau)  
  12. Hallelujah I Love Her So
  13. Makin' Whoopee 
  14. Busted
  15. Don't Set Me Free (with Lillie Fort) 
  16. Two Ton Tessie
  17. My Baby (I Love Her Yes I Do) (with Lillie Fort) 
  18. What'd I Say 
  19. Finale (Pop Goes The Weasel)
In an article on the extended re-issue, in Soul Bag n° 203, Joël Dufour has shared his reconstruction of the real line-up of the band. It's surprisingly different from the personnel listings so far associated with the record.

Personnel:
Musicians: Ray Charles - vocals, piano, organ; Oliver Beener, Roy Burrows, Phil Guilbeau, Floyd Jones - trumpet; James Lee Harbert, Fred Murrell, Juan Tizol - trombone; Keg Johnson - bass trombone; Harold Minerve, ?Dan Turner? - alto saxophone, James Clay - tenor saxophone; David Newman - tenor saxophone, flute; Leroy Cooper - baritone saxophone; Don Peake - guitar; Edgar Willis - bass; Wilbert Hogan - drums. The Raelettes: Gwen Berry, Helen Bryant, Lillie Fort, Bobbie Pierce. Clarence McDonald also contributed, on keyboards.

F.l.t.r. Gwen Berry, Lillie Fort, Bobbie Pierce, Helen Bryant - 1964
In another review of the extended album, Michael Lydon wrote: "[...] the liner notes say it was manager Joe Adams, but I suspect Ray himself decided to record the show; maybe he could get an album out of it as popular as ‘59’s Ray Charles in Person. Sid Feller, then Ray’s producer at ABC-Paramount, flew out from New York, and Adams booked LA’s premier recording engineer, Wally Heider [...]".

Remastering guru Steve Hoffman, who spent many hours with Brother Ray, wrote that Ray Charles said he "hated" the live album.*
Hoffman believes that Ray felt the Shrine gig "was an off night for him. He owed ABC an album and couldn't come up with it for reasons we all know. At first ABC was going to issue a compilation of leftover tracks as ABC-500 but ended up doing the [...] live concert thing with the same number."

* On the other hand, Hoffman says, Ray "blew hot and cold about almost all of his ABC-Paramount work". 

2. Swing A Little Taste:

4. I've Got A Woman:

5. Georgia On My Mind:

6. Margie:

8. Hide Nor Hair:

9. That Lucky Old Sun:

10. Baby Don't You Cry:

11. In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down):

12. Hallelujah, I Love Her So:

13. Makin' Whoopee:

14. Busted:

15. Don't Set Me Free:

16. Two Ton Tessie:

17. My Baby I Love Her, Yes I Do):

18. What'd I Say:

19. Finale:

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