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Ray Charles Interviewed On A-uan-ba-buluba-balam-bamboo (1985)

A-uan-ba-buluba-balam-bamboo was a Spanish music magazine series, hosted by Sandra Milhaud and Carlos Tena, and broadcast by TVE 2. It mainly recycled music clips. On 24 October 1985 they featured Ray Charles, with an exclusive interview, and a recent video clip. Source here. The interview may have been shot at Ray's concert in San Sebastián that year (on July 21st).

Who knows more?

From one of the 1980s episodes:

Ray Charles Ft. In Musical Express-Amigos (1981)

Musical Express-Amigos was a weekly 1-hour music magazine with lots of jazz, blues, and soul, hosted by Angel Casas, and broadcast by TVE. Ray Charles was featured in one of the episodes, with an interview (dubbed in Spanish), taped backstage at his concert from 26 May 1981, at the Palacio Municipal de los Deportes in Barcelona (review here).
On 18 April 1982 the program makers looked back on "un año de Musical Express", and included a sequence about Ray.

I've seen a 59-minute copy of the show. Casas mixed concert footage (obviously not in the order of the concert's setlist) with a spoken biography of Ray and a backstage interview. The concert's quality was rather mediocre, the interview not interesting at all.

• I Can't Stop Loving You
• Spoken bio
• Georgia On My Mind 
• Fragment Blues Brothers
• Interview at concert location
• Yesterday 
• Oh, What A Beautiful Morning 
• Busted 
• I Want Your Love (The Raelettes) 
• Anyway You Want To (The Raelettes) 
• Knock On Wood (ft Trudy Cohran) 
• Crying Time 
• Hit The Road Jack 
• Interview
• What'd I Say 

Ray Charles Live In Versilia (1984)

On 1 November 1984 Ray Charles gave a concert in the Bussola Domani series at the Palcoscenica in Versilia. The show was (live, semi-live or later?) broadcast by Rai Uno. La Stampa of 2 November suggested that Ray received 100,000,000 lire for the performance ("3,000 spectators in a religious silence under the big tent [...], moved the audience with a whisper and mumbles his infinite tenderness, and loads of fun and laughter, enhances  applause with the originality of his interpretations and his squirming at the piano").

Personnel:
Musicians: Robbie Kwock, Mark Curry, Jim Seeley, Jeff Kaye - trumpets; John Boice, Dan Marcus, Dan Weinstein, Dana Hughes - trombones; Brian Mitchell, Clifford Solomon (band leader), Ricky Woodard, Rudy Johnson, Louis Van Taylor - saxophones; Bobby Floyd - organ; Dennis Nelson - guitar; Roger Hines - bass; Ricky Kirkland - drums. Raelettes: Trudy Cohran, Anne Johnson, Janice Mitchell, Elaine Woodard, Estella Yarbrough.

I have seen a few video fragments of the concert. Who knows more?

Ray Charles Ft. In KFBE Bio's Bahnhof (1982)

On 15 July 1982 Ray Charles performed in the 28th episode of the German variety show KFBE Bio's Bahnhof, hosted by Alfred Biolek (nicknamed Bio), and taped at the Railway Depot in Frechen. KFBE was an acronym for the Köln-Frechen-Benzelrather Eisenbahn.
The other guests were Alexander Arnz, Supercharge, Mario and Romano Colombaioni, Majorie Barnes, the Rollstuhlfahrer-Tanzgruppe der Technischen Universität München, Imrat Khan Family, Gustl Thoma, Serapions Theater, and the Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination*. Source here.

Trombonist Dan Marcus' eye witness account of the gig adds some more flavor to the peculiar format of Bio's show:

"Our show included a yodeling instructor, a bunch of dancers dressed up like evil Disney animal characters, rippin' their way out of a giant grocery bag, and the afore-mentioned wheelchair dance group, which was a bunch of women ballroom dancers with their wheelchair-bound parapalegic husbands. [...] The FUNNY part is that after a mad scramble up the Autobahn (it was raining, so Ray wouldn't fly), a whole afternoon of rehearsal & sound-check with this high-powered band (I remember that Bob Coassin was playing lead trumpet [...]), with Bio & his producers running around like high-stressed madmen trying to keep the obviously overbooked show (two hours of weird shit in a 90 minute bag) on the rails, the show runs long anyway, and with about 45 seconds of airtime left, they cue Ray to start What'd I Say. He goes to play the Rhodes intro & the sustain pedal's frozen down (not good). So he of course freaks out & these techs scramble over and slide the Rhodes away from him to work on it. Unfortunately, [Ray] doesn't realize that he is NOW no longer invisible from the waste down, and to end the bizarre show, the German public are treated to a live close-up two-shot of the Genius of Soul frustratedly & furiously scratching his balls. Cut to commercial..."

The good news is that the footage has survived. Ray, the girls, and (a portion of)* the band (in T-shirts!) performed:

1. Riding Thumb
2. I Can't Stop Loving You
3. What'd I Say

* Dean Congin remembers that a portion of the Ray Charles band was selected to play with Herbolzheimer's group.

The bad news is that the Genius' cojones didn't play a really prominent part in the scene with the Rhodes (but what remains, is still funny to watch):

Video embedded for documentation purposes in the context of this blog only. Please don't share this link.

Another bizarre sample of the show; much more on YouTube:

Ray Charles Ft. In Envoyé Spécial (1996)

Envoyé Spécial was a 43m20s documentary about Jean-Pierre Grosz, and his working relationship - and friendship - with Ray Charles. The program was first aired by France 2 on 15 May 1996. Source here. Also read this.

I found an automated (French to English) translation from the description of this documentary in the INA archive (ID CAB96020392). It's clear that a bit of drama was added to the script. Some edited highlights:

• Jean-Pierre Grosz, a locksmith working in the district of Montmartre in Paris, maintained a long friendship with the American singer Ray Charles before the latter suggested to produce Strong Love Affair. This fairy tale began 19 years ago (on January 29th, 1979, Jan-Pierre's birthday) when Charles promised him that one day he would produce one of his albums.
• Various shots in black and white of Ray Charles; music clip: Say No More.
• Shot of the back of Ray's car (license plate RC 923), parked in front of RPM Studios.
• Semi CU of Ray's legs, walking a bit unsurely in a corridor.
• Ray feeling the pieces of a chess set with his hands.
• Interview: Ray answers the question why he chose a French producer: he is not interested in the nationality of people; what counts for him is if he can communicate with someone. He doesn't have to see Jean Pierre, he can imagine him.
• Shots of Ray's office, with a plan board scheduling Ray's annual 320 concerts.
• Ray preparing some coffee, showing that he knows how to manage things alone.
• Interview: he can do everything; he only regrets he can't drive.
• Scene from the commercial where Ray drives a Peugeot 306 ("the clip realized without special effects").
• Shot of the "very secret studio", Ray mixing music ("only he is authorized to do this").
• Ray and Jean-Pierre side by side in front of the mixing desk: a "very excited Grosz" dries his forehead. Ray explains why he is disappointed: it is necessary to have something to say in a sad song. They listen to another take of the song. Ray likes it. "Both men dance".
• Ray searching for a cassette on a shelf, not finding it. He shows his concern: to lose something is a disaster because without help, he can't find anything.
• Interior of the safe where Charles keeps all his recordings: woman helping him to open drawers; Grosz, Charles and woman looking for the cassette. They find it.
• Grosz says that all tapes are in safe boxes, to protect them against fire.
• Interview in the recording studio: while laughing a lot, Ray explains that he does not consider himself to be a songwriter, although he has had a lot of success with his own songs. He had to put 3 days in composing Hallelujah I Love You So, which he considered as way too long.
• Ray and Jean-Pierre dancing while listening to some music in the recording studio.
• Ray, Jean-Pierre and unidentified other people leaving the building (in V.O. the journalist explains that they do not know where they go).
• Interview with Ray before he gets into his car. He knows the color of his car. He can still imagine all basic colors because he lost his sight when he was seven.
• Shot of the back of the car, going to a hospital.
• Woman welcoming the singer by saying to him that the person with whom he has a meeting is waiting for him.
• Shots of room: Ray Charles waiting for the mother of a girl whose operation he financed "so that she is not deaf any more". Arrival of the smiling and happy mother (she did not know who financed the 20,000 Francs. The girl is carried by her father. She is very shy but smiles in the end.
• Interview. For Ray hearing is more important than seeing. If he lost his hearing, he would die. Through our ears we are more in touch with the world, a child has a better chance in life if he/she can hear (understand).
• The family and Ray embrace each other before leaving.
• Ray in front of a door with a broken key inside the lock. Grosz meets another locksmith. Both locksmiths speaking about their profession.
• The lock is repaired, Ray can finally enter the room, where he seizes a vintage bottle of champagne.

After compiling the text above, I've seen the whole - very charming - documentary. The contents of the last part of the film are missing in the INA description above. These entailed scenes from a trip to Washington, footage from a private (small-symphony) concert performed there, and a very funny interview immediately after that concert. Ray totally lost it after the interviewer confronted him with the fact that there were no blacks in the audience. After drying his tears, he takes his time to explain that the typical audience of these private concerts only exists of millionaires, and that it's a fact of life that there simply are no black millionaires... with the exception, maybe, of... Ray Charles (followed by more hilarious laughter).
Grosz also wrote a book about their remarkable adventures: Ray, mon ami (Paris, 2005).

Ray Charles Ft. In NBC Music Legends (1997)

Music Legends was an NBC series of 13 double documentaries on major popular musicians, each episode featuring two artists in 2 times 12 minutes. It aired in 1997.
Among the other musicians were Quincy Jones, Curtis Mayfield, Mark Knopfler, Phil Collins, Robby Krieger, and Nick Cave. Source here.

Who knows more?

Ray Charles Closes Olympic Summer Games (1996)

On 4 August 1996 Ray Charles took 8 minutes (source: here) to perform America The Beautiful at Woodruff Arts Center in the closing ceremonies of the Atlanta Olympic Summer Games. The New York Times TV critic wrote: "Constant replays of Ray Charles singing America have accomplished the unthinkable: never wanting to hear him sing it again".

On Facebook, Ray Charles Orchestra trumpetist Chuck Parrish wrote about the band getting a call for another Olympic gig after the bomb that went off on July 27th, to play at Centennial Park. "I guess we were the guinea pigs on whether it was safe to play there after the bomb went off. 250K in the crowd and worldwide broadcast to all Olympic stations and CNN when we played Georgia."
Trumpet player George Rawlin, also on Facebook, remembers, "I played with Ray every night of the '96 Olympics. Big orchestra, big fun, biiiggg swing!"

Who knows more about the actual footage?

Ray Charles Guests At The Danny Kaye International Children's Awards (1991)

On 1 September 1991 Ray Charles contributed to Unicef 1991; The Danny Kaye International Children's Awards, taped at the Congresgebouw in The Hague. The show was hosted by Roger Moore and Audrey Hepburn, and directed by Dwight Hemion. Other guest artists were Luciano Pavarotti, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Cher, Gregory Peck, Whoopi Goldberg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Source here.

Who knows more about Ray's performance?

Ray Charles Live In Sitges (1976)

From La Vanguardia, Aug. 8.

On 26 July 1976 Ray Charles gave a concert in Sitges, as a closing act of the Primer Festival de Jazz. The show was broadcast live by TVE 1.
As yet, no footage has surfaced.

From Spanish newspaper articles it becomes clear that after the cameras stopped, Ray's manager, Joe Adams, ostensibly said goodbye to the audience, "sowing doubt in the auditorium". Soon after that, the organization announced that the concert would resume after an interval of fifteen minutes. But Adams claimed that the job was done, ordered the orchestra to abandon the stage, and disappeared, "leaving the organizers in a state of confusion". Sources:  here, here and here.

Drummer Scott von Ravensberg remembers: "We were to do two sets at an outdoor stage, right on the coast. We did the first show and the people went wild, they loved it..! Well back in the band tent we were told that we wouldn't be doing the second set and that we needed to pack up and leave... quietly. So we did!

Jim Campbell on bass just to the left of Ray; Andy Ennis just behind the piano,; Henry Coker just above Ray's glasses; Bob Knedlick to Henry's left behind and above Andy; Ernest Vantrease at the far end of the piano. Photo by Josep Maria Alegre.

Apparently Ray had found out that the concerts were being recorded and said 'No second show!' I'm not sure, and won't mention names, but someone told someone else that misunderstood what someone's 'deal' had included, and didn't bother to tell Brother Ray.
I guess everyone in the city must have been at the show... it was kind of crazy because there were NO cabs! So we, I mean every one in the band, the girls AND Ray (that's right, Ray!) had to walk back, a mile or so, to the hotel along the ocean in the dark! [...] Well as it turned out [...] the road crew had to pack up everything and get it back to the hotel. It started to rain at some point, and the people went ape shit when there was no 2nd show. They rioted and bum rushed the stage! They got to the girls' costume & make up bags and threw things all over, and tried to get to the drums and band fronts and the Fender Rhodes piano that we carried, as well as to the bass and guitar amps. I don't know how Harold and Tony [i.e. the road crew] did it, but they beat back the hordes and somehow got our stuff back to the hotel!"

The Sitges stage, just before hell broke out. From La Vanguardia, Aug. 8.