Ray Charles Video Museum: Ray Charles Is In Town

1981

Ad for Rhodes keyboards.

At the Teatro Cervantes, with the Orquesta Ciudad in Málaga.

Early January 1981
Recording Why Me, Lord with Johnny Cash, in Nashville. See this.

20 January 1981
Performing at inaugural ball. See this; more photos with Reagans here.

Photos by Vince Mannino.

Color photos by Dennis Brack.

27 January 1981
Live In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at The Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton (taped). See this.

9 - 11 February 1981
Arrives at Heathrow Airport, London to perform three sold-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. Photo here.

7 March 1981
Hands casted in cement for Star's Hall Of Fame in Orlando and Movieland Wax Museum near LA, during ceremony in LA. Photo here.

14 March 1981
On Hee Haw. See this.

1 April 1981
In Country Comes Home (aired 10 April 1982). See this.

From Cashbox.

14 to 19 April 1981
Granny's Dinner Playhouse, Dallas; tickets $11.95-$14.95.

21 April 1981
Flynn Theatre, Burlington.

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22 April 1981
Fine Arts Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

24 April 1981
Bond's International Casino, New York.

28 April 1981
Lucerna in Prague.

Photo by Miroslav Zajíc (Corbis).

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29 April 1981

Circus Krone, Munich DE.

2 May 1981
Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt. Read review here.

Johnny Coles.

2 May, Frankfurt.
L-R: Stella Yarbrough, ?Ledoria [= Ann?] Johnson, Trudy Cohran, Janice Mitchell.
Photo by Marty Davis.

8 May 1981
Lille.

9 May 1981
Brussels.

11 May 1981
L'Olympia, Paris.
On Lynda Carter’s Celebration (air date). See this.

12 May 1981

Premier Center, Detroit.

17 May 1981

Palais des Sports, Bordeaux.

Ticket stub, coll. Jacques Merle.

26 May 1981
Palacio Municipal de los Deportes de Barcelona; review here.

27 May 1981
Grand Casino, Geneva (read review here).

3 June 1981
Woolsey Hall, New Haven.

16 June 1981
Wolf Trap, Washington ("the quintessential soulman does not define a musical style - he is that style").

25 June 1981
Tribute to Cab Calloway at dinner show in Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Story here.

26 June 1981
Hampton Jazz Festival in Virginia.

28 June 1981
Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh.

2 July 1981
Renaissance Plaza Hotel, Detroit.

At band BBQ (may have been taken on one of the other days in Detroit). Photos by Dan Marcus.

4 July 1981
Miami Marine Stadium.

8 July 1981
In Spoleto '81 - Now You Has Jazz (air date). See this.

11 July 1981
Tribute to Cab Calloway at Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles.

1 August 1981
At Festival Theatre, Stratford.

3 August 1981
Crazy Horse Steakhouse & Saloon, Santa Ana.

6 August 1981
Bayfront Plaza Auditorium, Corpus Christi; tickets $12.50-$16.50.

7 August 1981
John H. Lewis HPER Complex, Morris Brown College, Atlanta.

Benefit show at Morris Brown College for Sixth District AME Church Woman's Auxiliary, closing Special Arts Festival of International Year Of Disabled Persons (from Jet, Sep. 10, 1981).

8 August 1981
Atlantic City Jazz Fest.

~~12 August 1981~~
Rooftop of Casino in Sanremo; lands 7 hours late in London; concert canceled because of strike by flight engineers in USA.

13 August 1981;
Teatro Ariston, Sanremo.

15 August 1981;
Piazza del Duomo, Milan. Read review here.

16 August 1981
An Evening at Pops, Boston Symphony Hall (air date). See this.

23 August 1981
Santa Margherita Ligure, Genoa (Ray receives 28 M lire; "Giving an overwhelming cascade of emotions"; Review here.

September 1981
Benefit at Morris Brown College for the 6th District AME Church Woman's Auxiliary. Read this.

7 September 1981
Teatro Tendastrisce in Rome (bootlegged show; other sources date this concert on 7 July '81). See this.

12 September 1981
Fête de l'Humanité, Parc de la Courneuve. A small part of the concert was broadcast by TF-1 (INA ID CAA8101474201).

Coll. Joël Dufour.

Photo by Alain Keler (Corbis).

Photo by Guy Le Querrec/Magnum.

14 September 1981
Headlining La Fête De l’Huma, Paris. See this. More photos here.
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17 September 1981
Two shows at Trenton War Memorial Building.

25 September 1981
Civic Center, Charleston.

4 October 1981
Two shows at Theatre of the Performing Arts, New Orleans.

Ad from The Times-Picayune New Orleans, 20 Sep.

10 October 1981
Convention Center, Dayton.

Ray's Viscount spotted at DTW Detroit Metro:

11 October 1981
Grand Circus Live, Detroit.

17 October 1981
Birmingham-Hefferson County Civic Center Exhibition Hall; benefit for UNCF; tickets $50-$250.
Bestowed with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama.

18 October 1981
Avery Fisher Hall, New York; hosted by Bob Jones, with Linda Hopkins; tickets at $12.50-$17.50.

Ad in New York Amsterdam News, Oct. 3, 1981.

22 – 27 October 1981;
Giants of Jazz Salute, The Blue Note 10th Anniversary Concert.

31 October 1981
Jorgensen Auditorium, University of Connecticut (with David Letterman).

13 November 1981
Jazz at OSU; Mershon Auditorium, Columbus.

14 November 1981
Westbury Music Fair.

17 (or 18?) November 1981
On Mies, Dutch talk show. See this.

~~18 November 1981~~
Palazzotto dello Sport, Torino - canceled because of "international television obligations".

19 November 1981
Performing on Der Musikladen. See this.

20 to 22 November 1981
Parker's, Seattle.

Unidentified occasion, c. 1981.

Photos by Leni Sinclair.

28 November 1981
Convention Center Theatre, Fort Worth; with the Fort Worth Symphony conducted by James Simpson Miller; tickets $8-$15.

29 and 30 November 1981
Crazyhorse Steak House, Santa Ana.

December 1981


		Charles had a braille chess set, and Preston was happy to take him on. The game didn’t last very long. Charles won in seven moves.“He knew he was going to beat me, OK? He knew it,” Preston recalled. “Now I’m not Bobby Fischer, but I’ve been playing chess since I was a kid. Yeah, I was a little distracted because I wanted to make sure I could shoot, but I was fairly certain I could beat Ray Charles, with all due respect to everyone out there. And he hammered me.”