Ray Charles At The North Sea Jazz Festival (1980)

Live Concert: Northsea Jazz Festival, Prins Willem Alexanderzaal, Congresgebouw, The Hague – July 13, 1980.
Period: The Tangerine/Crossover/Atlantic Years (1973 – 1980).
Artist: Ray Charles (with The Raeletts, The Ray Charles Orchestra).
Label: Unissued.

Personnel:
Ray Charles - vocals, piano, electric piano; Mitch Manker, Doug Crescimano, Tom Swayzee, Doug Martin - trumpets; Art Velasco, Dan Marcus, Papo Vázquez, Steve Davis - trombones; Ricky Woodard, Clifford Solomon, Ira Weinstein, Rudy Johnson, Mark Roland - saxophones; Tony Matthews - guitar; Curtis Ohlson - bass; Peter Turre - drums; James Polk - keyboards. Raeletts: Estella Yarbrough, Pat Peterson, Madelyn Quebec, Trudy Cohran, Avis Harrell - vocals, background vocals.

1st concert
1. Project S (Ray Charles Orchestra)
2. Riding Thum
3. You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It
4. Georgia On My Mind
5. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
6. Just Because
7. Some Enchanted Evening
8. Don't You Love Me Anymore
9. Love Is What We Need (ft. Estella Yarbrough)
10. Knock On Wood (ft. Trudy Cohran)
11. I Can't Stop Loving You
12. I Can See Clearly Now
13. This Time (I'll Be The Fool) (ft. Madelyn Quebec)
14. I'm Gonna Keep On Singin'15. What'd I Say

2nd concert

1. Metamorphosis (Ray Charles Orchestra)
2. Let The Good Times Roll
3. Georgia On My Mind
4. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
5. How Long Has This Been Going On (solo: Tony Matthews - g)
6. Feel So Bad (solo: Tony Matthews - g)
7. She Knows (solo: Curtis Ohlson - b)
8. I Want Your Love (ft Estella Yarbrough)
9. Do It To Me Slow (ft Pat Peterson; solo: Tony Matthews - g)
10. Crying Time (ft Madelyn Quebec; intro with There's A Long Long Trail A-Winding)
11. You Are My Sunshine (ft Trudy Cohran)
12. Stormy Monday (solo: Tony Matthews - g)
13. What'd I Say

Remarks

1. TV recording produced by AVRO. Directed by Theo Ordeman. Parts of program hosted live by Pim Jacobs. Only tracks #4, 5 and 9 of the second concert were broadcast (late night on Oct. 13, 1980) on Dutch TV. In 2016 AVRO shared track #16 of the first concert on YouTube. Reelin' In The Years offers licenses to 23 separated tracks. Source materials: Beeld- & Geluid-Archief, ID #97039. 1st concert is stored on two tapes: a) #1 - #9; b) #9 [damaged copy] - #18. Track #15 has a brief glitch (prob. repairable by good editor). The messy start of the 1st concert was caused by a discussion between Ray Charles and the Festival people. Ray said (i.e. pretended) he didn’t agree to a TV recording, and demanded extra payment although the promotor produced a contract including a TV clause, signed by Ray’s management. After 20 minutes (and the audience becoming impatient) the Genius was able to pocket the extra money, $5,000, provided in cash by the sponsor, in hard cash.
2. In the second concert #9 (Do It To Me Slow) is the only known full version of this song (in an excellent performance featuring Pat Peterson); for many years the main theme of the song was used as the introduction 'jingle' for the walk-on of The Raeletts. The tune was arranged by Ray Charles and James Polk. Ray gave #10 (Crying Time) a unique little intro with a citation from There's A Long Long Trail A-Winding. Stormy Monday (#12) got an excellent - slowwww - rendition, reminiscent of the brilliant version known from the 1975 concert in Madrid (both times with Tony Matthews doing his magic on guitar!). Remarkably, I Can't Stop Loving You, was not performed - a rarity.
3. Doug Martin, Peter Turre and J.P. Verger helped to reconstruct the line-up.

1st concert, #8 (good copy):

1st concert, #8 [bad copy] - end:

1st concert, #11:

Ray Charles In Concert At The Valley Forge Music Fair (1994)

On July 1, 1994 the Ray Charles group performed at the Valley Forge Music Fair, near Devon. The concert was recorded from the audience. The audio tape is of a decent quality.

Ray and the band sounded tight. The section with the Raelettes ("all 5") was unusually brief - often a sign of recent changes in the girls' line-up.

1. High On The Hogg (Ray Charles Orchestra)
2. Unidentified Instrumental (Ray Charles Orchestra)
3. The Shadow Of Your Smile (Ray Charles Orchestra)
4. Intro RC
5. Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
6. Busted
7. Georgia On My Mind
8. Mississippi Mud
9. How Long Has This Been Going On
10. You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)
11. Come Live With Me
12. Blues For Big Scotia
13. A Song For You
14. Intro Raelettes (by RC)
15. Chain Of Fools (ft Estella Yarbrough)
16. I Can't Stop Loving You
17. Gonna Keep On Singin'
18. What'd I Say
19. Outro

Ray Charles Live In Atlantic City (1996)

From 19 to 21 January 1996 Ray Charles played a series of symphony concerts at the Mark G. Etess Arena (in the Trump Taj Mahal), in Atlantic City. Ray flew in his orchestra's rhythm section - with Peter Turre on drums, Kenny Carr on guitar, and Curtis Ohlson on bass - and Victor Vanacore as a conductor. The show on the 19th was taped from the audience; the audio quality is reasonably good.

1. MC's intro of rhythm section and conductor
2. Intro Ray Charles
3. It Hurts To Be In Love
4. It Ain't Easy Being Green
5. Let's Get Away From It All
6. Georgia On My Mind
7. Eleanor Rigby
8. If I Could
9. The Good Life
10. Yesterday
11. Blues For Big Scotia
12. A Song For You
13. All I Ever Need Is You
14. America The Beautiful
15. Outro

Ray Charles Live At The Blue Note (1991)

Ad from New York
Amsterdam News, Oct. 26, 1991. 

From 22 to 27 October 1991 the Ray Charles group played a series of shows at the famous Blue Note club in New York ("reported to be the only nightclub in the world where Charles still performs").

One of the shows on the 26th was taped from the audience. I've listened to a cassette tape of very poor quality. The setlist was without surprises:

1. Unidentified Instrumental
2. Intro Ray Charles
3. Then We'll Be Home (Sadies Tune)
4. Georgia On My Mind
5. Mississippi Mud
6. Come Rain Or Come Shine
7. Teardrops From My Eyes
8. She Knows
9. Feel So Bad
10. Intro Raelettes
11. Giving Up (ft Trudy Cohran)
12. Smack Dab In The Middle
13. I Can't Stop Loving You
14. What'd I Say
15. Outro

Ray Charles In New Haven (1985)

Source: Topfoto.

On 8 June 1985 Ray Charles and his group gave a concert at the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven. The show was taped from the audience. The audio quality is a little less than mediocre.

The setlist was:

1. Project S (Ray Charles Orchestra)
2. Intro
3. Let the Good Times Roll
4. Georgia On My Mind
5. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
6. How Long Has This Been Going On
7. Intro Raelettes
8. I Want Your Love (with The Raelettes)
9. Anyway You Want To
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. I’m Gonna Keep On Singin’ + What'd I Say
12. Outro
13. America The Beautiful
14. Walk-off

From Project S (#1) only one other live version (Madrid, 1975) has survived. #13 is a double surprise:  America The Beautiful was only part of the Ray Charles Orchestra's repertoire on and around the 4th of July (he also sang it frequently in his symphony gigs), and Ray 'never' (i.e. hardly ever) did encores.

The Ray Charles - Yes Indeed DVD (2009)

Obvious errors in DVD's credits corrected in list below.

In 2009 Genesis published a limited edition book-and-DVD-set titled Ray Charles: Yes Indeed! [Book:] The Photographs Of Joe Adams; [DVD:] Performances by Ray Charles, presenting "the unseen archive of Ray's friend and manager".

Because I didn't feel any sympathy for this (Adams') vanity project, I never bought a copy. But I'm happy that since the set came out nearly all of the photos (many of them documenting backstage and set scenes from a number of Ray's appearances at TV shows, mostly spanning the late 1960s and the 1970s) have leaked to the internet.

A friend recently send me a copy of the DVD, confirming or reconfirming that this footage has survived in excellent condition, and enabling me to correctly describe the DVD's contents for the first time. The links lead to more extensive blog articles about this footage:

1. Born To Lose - from The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (aired 9 April 1969)
2. Georgia On My Mind + Yesterday/Blues In The Night/God Bless The Child/Hallelujah Love Her So (with Carol Burnett) - from The Carol Burnett Show (aired 26 January 1972)
3. Crying Time (with Barbra Streisand) - from Barbra Streisand... And Other Musical Instruments (aired 2 November 1973)
4. Heaven Help Us All  - from Soul Of The Holy Land - The Lost Concert (filmed December 1972)
5. I Got A Woman  - from Saturday Night Live (aired 12 November 1977)
6. I Believe To My Soul - ibid
7. Them That Got - ibid
8. Hit The Road Jack - ibid
9. Half As Much - from Johnny Cash: Spring Fever (aired 7 May 1978)

Ray Charles Live At Caneção In Rio (1990)

On 30 November 1990 the Ray Charles group flew in (with a delay, and problems with escalators and elevators at the airport and at his hotel, that made headlines in the local press) from Santiago de Chile to Rio de Janeiro. That same or the next night he gave a concert at the famous show venue Caneçao in Rio. The show was taped for TV (directed by Wagner Vieira), and an edited version was broadcast on December 16th by Rede Manchete.

Ray, the band, and the girls were in good shape, but the concert didn't entail any surprises. The show's credits listed the tunes that were played (with quite some mistakes that I've corrected below).

1. Intro
2. Riding Thumb
3. Busted
4. Georgia On My Mind
5. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
6. Just For A Thrill (trumpet solo by Jeff Kaye)
7. Teardrops From My Eyes
8. Giving Up (ft Trudy Cohran)
9. Smack Dab In The Middle
10. I Can't Stop Loving You
11. Lay Around And Love On You (All I Wanna Do Is --)
12. Outro

Still from the TV program.

Obviously, What'd I Say was (and maybe more tunes were) omitted from the TV program.

Personnel
Ray's band members and the girls were credited in the TV program, be it with some omissions and mistakes - corrected here:

Musicians: Chuck Parrish, ?Ted Murdock?, Kenny Rampton, Jeff Kaye - trumpets; Steve Sigmund, Mike Guerrier, Marc Fields, Wayne Coniglio - trombones; Al Jackson, Craig Bailey - alto saxophones; Rudy Johnson, Al Waters - tenor saxophones;  ?Scott Frillman? - baritone saxophone; David Rokeach - drums; Kenny Carr - guitar; Benoît Grey - bass; Ernest Vantrease - piano. The Raelettes: Kay Nickerson, Trudy Cohran, Angela Workman, Estella Yarbough.