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: