Ray Charles Playing Some Blues At The Sunset Terrace (1951)

UPDATED Jun. 20

This newspaper article, from the Indianapolis Recorder of March 3, 1951, is one of the oldest print publications about Ray Charles that I've found so far.
The story announces a dance gig with Lowell Fulson at the Sunset Terrace in Indianapolis, describing Ray as an "added attraction", a "song stylist", and a "sensational songbird", "who'll give with" (i.e. 'will be performing' or 'will be backing Fulson on'?) "such numbers as Everyday I Have The Blues, Blue Shadow, Sinner's Progress and Old Time Shuffle".
Looking closer at this little 'setlist' it becomes clear that Ray was only playing the piano:

Every Day I Have the Blues

Ray never put the song out on a regular record, but we have a special version from More Music From Ray, the follow-up to the soundtrack of the biopic Ray, where Charles dubbed in his piano playing (watch here how it landed in the film). For Fulson's 1949 version, listen to this.

Blue Shadow
I don't know of any song with that title, but it can almost certainly be identified with Fulson's Blue Shadows, from 1950.

Sinner's Progress
Any tune with this title is unknown to me, but it's highly probable that this is a corruption for Sinner's Prayer, a song penned by Lowell Fulson and Lloyd Glenn, and recorded by Fulson in early 1950. Ray recorded his famous version in 1954.

Old Time Shuffle
Old Time Shuffle Blues is another (instrumental) song composed by Lloyd Glenn; he recorded it in November 1950. Fulson released it as the flip side of his Sinner's Prayer in early 1950.

In the 1950s Ray developed a strong fan base in Indianapolis, performing there several times a year, at several venues. Some girls even started a local, socially very active, Ray Charles fanclub. After his drugs arrest in '61 he stayed away from the city for 5 or 6 years.

Additions
After reading the article above, Ray Charles expert Joel Dufour shared some valuable bits of information with me:

• Renald Richard told Joel (about Ray Charles) that the common practice for a singer in the 1950s was to begin his show by singing covers of current hits and to finish the set with his own most successful songs.  
• It is just impossible that Fulson would have let Ray perform his own songs in his place on his show – especially as Blue Shadows and Everyday I Have The Blues were his biggest hits (#1 and #3 in the Billboard charts). Those probably constituted Lowell's climax songs by which he closed his performances. While Sinner's Prayer wasn't a smash for Lowell, and Ray would record it later on, it is also extremely unlikely that Lowell would have allowed Ray to sing it on his show.
• It could be that Lowell let Ray play Old Time Shuffle Blues during his solo spot in the show, since it wasn't a Fulson record, but a Lloyd Glenn hit release. (Although the label indicated “Lloyd Glenn with Th' Fulson Unit”, Lowell himself did not play on Glenn's record).

Many years ago Dick Shurman shared a few interesting anecdotes about the early days of the Lowell/Ray relationship with Dufour:

• Joel recalls the first of Shurman's stories as follows. "[...] One day while Lowell Fulson was singing and playing, backed by his band including Ray (who had played his own set earlier), he spotted a young attractive woman in the audience whose attitude was making it very clear that she had a crush on him. So much so, that Lowell suddenly put down his guitar and left the stage to get better acquainted with her, leaving his band to go on with the show… Thus Ray took over while Lowell was busy buzzing around his new conquest… Only to have to (angrily) run back to the bandstand, as Ray was breaking the house down, stealing the show."
• Lloyd Glenn himself was Shurman's direct source for the following story, as retold to me by Dufour. "Lloyd played with Lowell Fulson in the studio, but he didn't like to travel, and thus scarcely played with him on stage. This is why Jack Lauderdale [the boss of Down Beat/Swing Time Records] eventually suggested that Ray Charles should fill Lloyd's chair when Lowell was touring. On one of those rare occasions when Lloyd did perform live with Lowell Fulson (the posters outside were announcing “Lowell Fulson & his orchestra featuring Lloyd Glenn”), a woman in the audience started yelling at Lloyd, “You are NOT Lloyd Glenn! Lloyd Glenn is a blind man!” This is how Lloyd discovered that Lowell had Ray pass for him…"
• Lloyd Glenn told Shurman that Ray Charles had 'stolen' two tunes from him: Blues Hangover and Rockhouse. "While it is evident that [Ray's Atlantic recording] A Bit Of Soul is Blues Hangover, I never actually heard any Lloyd Glenn tune which sounded exactly like Rockhouse – even if that tune is obviously in the Lloyd Glenn style. As for the wrong title and writer credits for Blues Hangover, the Atlantic people, rather than Ray, are probably responsible for them [...]." 

Ray Charles Small Big Band Acting As House Band In Fantabulous Show (1957)

On November 14, 1957 the Fantabulous Rock 'n' Roll Blues Show, with "More Than 50 Top Stars" was staged at Tomlinson Hall in Indianapolis; with Mickey and Sylvia, The Moonglows, The Velours, Larry 'The Short Fat Fannie' Williams and his orchestra, Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley and his Trio, Ray Charles "and his dance orchestra [...] of nine men who were also the house-band", Mary Ann Fisher, Roy Brown, The Del Vikings, Nappy Brown, Vikki Nelson, Annie Laurie. Also read this.

Ad in Indianapolis Reporter, Nov. 2. Don't miss the "Shinleg Ray" label.

I've Got A Woman At Alan Freed's WINS Radio Show (1955)

The excellent Vocal Group Harmony website offers a highly entertaining, 70-minute copy of an Alan Freed radio show ("Rock 'n' Roll Party") on the New York station WINS 1010 AM, as it was aired on February 12, 1955.
The Top 25 of that week had Ray's ("the great blind blues singer") I've Got A Woman on #18 (at 33:00). The song had topped the Billboard R&B chart in the previous month.

RealAudio Stream: here.
RealAudio Download (11 MB): here.

Ray Charles Performing At New Jersey Vigil (2001)

On September 23, 2001 the State of New Jersey organized Remembrance and Reflection: An Observance to Remember New Jersey's Victims and Honor Our Heroes, an observance and candlelight vigil hosted by Chris and Dana Reeve at the South Overlook of Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

It featured appearances by Ray Charles and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

New Jersey Network Public Television aired and NJN Public Radio (through www.njn.net) video-streamed the program live. Source here.

Ray Charles Crossing Over To Teenagers (1961)

Photo top by Jim
Marshall, probably
from another concert;
photo bottom by
"Skeetz", shot at the
Hollywood Bowl.

In April 1961 Ray Charles formed his first, "temporary" bigband, for a 3-weeks tour in the U.S. This "A Salute To Genius" tour was promoted by Hal Zeiger. During the last part of Spring and early Summer Ray alternately played with his "small bigband" (as in Antibes), and with his "augmented" bigband.
After returning from Europe, a 3-day concert series was staged at Big Wilt's Smalls Paradise in New York (from July 31 to August 2), with "his 19 Piece Band and Raylets Quartet". Through August he toured through the U.S., probably doing all concerts with the augmented band.
On September 10, Hal Zeiger staged a huge show at the Hollywood Bowl, re-using the title "A Salute To Genius".* It required a week of rehearsals - according to one of my sources with a "19-piece string section and 12-voice chorus".
I assumed this information (about the strings, and the size of the chorus) was false, but contemporary descriptions of Ray's shows are extremely rare - any information about this period is therefore very hard to check (and, as I prefer, to doublecheck).
That's why I was very happy to receive a copy of a very evocative review of the Hollywood Bowl concert in my email today - another generous gesture from my friend Joël Dufour. The article, titled The Genius & The Kids At Hollywood Bowl, appeared in Down Beat on December 7, 1961, and was signed by that magazine's editor, [John] Tynan.
The importance of this article, however, is much bigger than in the surprising conformation of the odd line-up at this show (I guess Zeiger must have used this particular concert as a show case to convince local promoters and agents to book Ray). The story also describes and analyzes the essence of Ray's unsurpassed fame and recognition in the year 1961, stating that The Genius' established appreciation among fellow jazz musicians, jazz critics and jazz fans had now also crossed over to an entirely new audience segment: the teenagers - who turned out to celebrate Ray's music in entirely new ways:

"Since increased popularity invariably runs neck and neck with increased income, the fallacy of thought exists among some jazz musicians that critics are opposed in principle to economic improvement.
Ray Charles may change all this.

Not only is his music beloved of professional jazzmen, most critics, and jazz fans, his singing also seems to reach an ever-growing public of remarkable variety.
A recent Charles concert [...] revealed a[...] possibly revolutionary shocker: The smoldering blues singer has captured the hully-gully set, the great U.S. teenage bloc.
For more than an hour [...] Charles, backed by his 16-piece band, a 19-piece string section and a 12-voice choir, stirred mounting excitement among some 6,000 fans - mostly teenagers concentrated in the lower-priced seats - until the audience scaled heights of enthusiasm that assumed near-riot proportions before the close of the program. [...]
At concerts and in night clubs throughout the country the impassioned singer works with his own band, and it is seldom 16 pieces. On this occasion, though, the trappings were lavish. [...]
From the first measures of Moanin', he had them. Then, when he hit Let the Good Times Roll, the lusty tenor of Newman alternating with Charles' high hoarseness, the teenagers responded with impromptu performances all their own. Screaming, they leaped onto seats, hands wriggling in air, torsos twitching. They erupted into the aisles, hully-gullying solo or in pairs. [...]
With each new flare-up of dancing, police moved from aisle to aisle, shining their flashlights at the gyrating dancers, urging them back to their seats.
Finally, at about 11 p.m., Charles announced, 'I am shocked, shocked to learn there's fighting in the audience. The police have asked me to cut it off.'
Defiantly, the children responded, What'd I say... What'd I say...! Shrugging, Charles returned to the keyboard.
With the opening of the familiar What'd I Say?, the teenagers went wild. Beyond restraint now, they poured into the aisles once more and flowed in a human torrent down the steps from the cheaper sections to the edge of the pool separating audience from stage. Two youths leaped onto the low wall of the pool; a dozen followed. In moments the top of the wall was alive. A line of youths was silhouetted against the lighted water, arms madly waving, bodies jerking in ceaseless motion to the music.
From the packed mass at their jigging feet came roars of appreciation. [...] The entire audience was now on its feet witnessing in mixed amazement and laughter the dervishlike display of the pool-wall prancers.
Then, from either side, police moved in cautiously, quietly, gradually breaking up the throng [...].**
And then it was over/ The children dispersed quietly. [...[ Charles brought What'd I Say? to a shouting close and the audience, still agog, moved toward the exits.
Thus has Ray Charles, proclaimed "Soul Genius" etcetera, traversed musical taste from the professional jazzman and dedicated jazz fan to [the] teenage screamer."

This level of appreciation for Ray Charles by teenagers was a shortlived phenomenon. It ended somewhere in 1963 or 1964, and surely did not survive Ray's sabbatical year 1965. In later interviews, the Genius himself has several times explained why:

"My stuff was more adult. It was more difficult for teenagers to relate to; my stuff was filled with more despair than anything you'd associate with rock 'n' roll. Since I couldn't see people dancing, I didn't write jitterbugs or twists. I wrote rhythms that moved me. My style required pure heart singing."

* After that, this tour's title remained in use until the end of the year. ** An article in the St. Petersburg Times reported a more serious situation: "'A crowd of 500 teen-agers rioted [...], in a frenzy over music of the Ray Charles Quintet [sic!]', police said. They were among an audience of more than 6,000. Some of the screaming youngsters organized a 'dance group' and staged what police said were objectionable dances. Ten arrests were made on various charges." Source here.

A Great Day In San Francisco - Ray & Rea @ The Fillmore West, Unabridged (1971)

King Curtis, Aretha, Ray, Billy.

This video - in my perception truly the Holy Grail in the History of Soul Music - suddenly popped up in my inbox yesterday. This morning I was informed* that, since a few months, it can also be watched online. (I keep on wondering how some uploads, although they are properly titled, can be so hard to track down on Youtube).
It's the unabridged in-house video of Ray's surprise guest appearance at Aretha Franklin's concert at the Fillmore West, on March 7, 1971 (the only footage missing from this copy is the last 3 feet of Ray's walk-off at the end; there's also a split second black out at 15:20, probably because of a tape change).

The 2005 4-CD re-release.

I wrote earlier articles about the live album, the discovery of the unabridged audio recording, and the discovery of the second part of this same video.

For me the biggest surprise while watching the (first part of the) video footage that's new to me, is in the fact that The Genius delivered it standing up, holding a microphone - I don't know of any other instance at a live concert where he did that, before or after '71.

Photo by Jim Marshall.

In a 1971 interview Ray declared, "That live recording by Aretha Franklin that I joined in on recently? It was a true accident. I just happened to be in a club in San Francisco, and somebody said to me: 'Hey, Ray, Aretha's working at Basin Street West' or wherever it was, and I said: 'I didn't know that. So why don't we go by and catch her?' So we all went by, and I was sitting out there. Evidently somebody told her, and before I knew it she'd left the stage and come up and snatched me. I mean, I can't argue with a woman - it's very difficult for me! She said: 'Come on up and do something'. but I didn't know what to do. I'm sure, if you listen to the song we did, the Spirit In The Dark, you could tell I don't even know the thing. I'd heard her sing it, but I think when Aretha sings something, after that everybody else should forget about it. You know nothing else can be done to it. So I didn't know it, but I figured: okay, since I'm here we might as well fake it the best we can. And the thing wound up selling over a million records."

Personnel:
King Curtis (ts, band leader) and The Kingpins (Bernard Purdie - d; Cornell Dupree -g; Jerry Jemmott - b; Truman Thomas - ep [he stepped back when Ray came on stage]; Pancho Morales - congas; the Memphis Horns (Wayne Jackson, Roger Hobbs - tp; Jack Hale - tb; Lou Collins, Andrew Love - ts; Jimmy Mitchell - bs), The Sweethearts Of Soul (Brenda Bryant, Margaret Branch, Pat Smith) - backing vocals; special guest Billy Preston - Hammond organ.



Some things more about the recording (circumstances) from Mitch Meyers' liner notes:

"How do you top that? Trust Aretha to receive some divine intervention on the road to pop's promised land. 'I discovered Ray Charles!' she exclaims. In a spontaneous moment, Aretha brought gospel-soul icon Ray Charles onstage for a reprise of Spirit In The Dark. Their ecstatic duet is surely a moment to remember but according to Jerry Wexler, the two golden voices were surrounded by chaos when they came together on the bandstand. 'Yeah, that was an accident,' Wexler remembers. 'Nobody knew Ray Charles was there and when he came out onstage it was one big ball of confusion. They started to vamp on the Spirit In The Dark and couldn't get it together. Finally it had a semblance of agreement, but it was an unplanned mess and we had to do some very careful editing.'

Ray, Aretha.

Billy, Aretha, Ray.

Brother Ray's singing and electric piano playing lends something extra to the live record, but his special appearance barely made it onto the finished product. 'Because Ray remembered the difficulties [onstage] I had a very difficult job getting his okay to release the record with his voice on it," says Wexler. 'It took a lot of persuasion and argument, and Ray Charles is not amenable to persuasion once he makes up his mind. So that was a difficult part.' [...]

Jerry Wexler felt there was one more noteworthy thing regarding the making of this record: [...] 'In live gigs, the horns and the background voices almost always sound out of tune, but they're not. That's because certain voices in the group and certain voices in the horns are too prominent and you can't change it on a live broadcast. So we redid the horns and the voices in the studio using the same people. That what's important, all they did was replicate their parts. We laid it over and it came out perfectly, there were no intonation problems but the trick was to use the Memphis Horns and the Sweethearts of Soul. So we called them back in, that's why it came out as good as it did.'"

Here's the integral concert:



* A special thank you to Hector Tarín.

When Ray Charles Met Ray Charles (1961)

From The Milwaukee
Sentinel, Feb. 22, 1961.

Video still from the show.

 ...and when The Raelettes met The Ray Charles Chorus.

It all happened at The Perry Como Kraft Music Hall Show, telecast from the NBC Studios (in color; prod. no. 61-380) in Brooklyn, N.Y., on February 22, 1961. The program was directed by Dwight Hemion. The other guest stars were Jimmy Durante, Anne Bancroft, and Renée Taylor. The footage is licensed by Research Video Inc. I've seen a B/W copy, but the TV page of a contemporary newspaper (see clipping, right) announced the show as a color cast.

1961 was no doubt the most hectic year in The Genius' career. There were five album releases (that all charted), one  single (Hit The Road Jack) that reached the #1 position both on the R&B and Pop charts, an instrumental (One Mint Julep) that scored #1 R&B and #8 Pop, and several more singles that charted well. In the spring he "augmented" his small big band to a real BIG band, flew his small band to France for his European debut and a triumph in Antibes, later in the year returned to France with his big band for another triumph in Paris, and made his debut in a feature movie (Swingin' Along).
But, on the downside, early in the year several concerts ended in riots, at other gigs (including the infamous one in Augusta) he refused to perform for a segregated audience, and was sued for it, and everybody in show business was gossiping about his drug abuse. Worse, he was arrested twice in the course of the year.
In the light of all his success, though, it was only logical that NBC invited him to perform at their biggest variety show. In the light of all controversial stories surrounding Ray, it must also have been an act of courage.

It was Charles' debut on national network TV. He performed Georgia On My Mind (with David Newman on flute) and What'd I Say (with Ray's septet, The Raelettes, and the Ray Charles Chorus).

Personnel:
Ray was accompanied by: Phil Guilbeau, John Hunt - trumpets; Hank Crawford - alto saxophone, David Newman - tenor saxophone, flute; Leroy Cooper - baritone saxophone, Edgar Willis - bass; Bruno Carr - drums. The Raelettes were: Gwen Berry, Margie Hendricks, Darlene McCrea, and Mae Saunders. With the Ray Charles Chorus and the Mitchell Ayres Orchestra.

Ray Charles meets Ray Charles

Credits Muppets' 30th Anniversary.

Watching Brother Ray's contribution to this Perry Como Show for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by a brief intermission between the two tunes, where choral director, composer and arranger Ray Charles Offenberg - a long time contributor to Como's shows - introduced himself to Ray Charles Robinson, and played out that Como had asked him to submit a request for What'd I Say:

Ray Charles Singers & Raelettes

The confusion about the two Ray Charles'es already started in the 1950s, and for Offenberg it even lasts till today. But the subjects of the confusion never worried about it. Offenberg soon submitted to being called The Other Ray Charles, and even insisted that he was credited with that 'name' for his contributions to the Muppets' A Celebration Of 30 Years Show (1986).
The performance of What'd I Say got some extra (and odd looking) production value when, at the end, the Ray Charles Chorus stepped in to support The Raelettes (who, though very rarely, by some media were also called The Ray Charles Singers) in the call-and-response part of the tune.

I didn't see the remainder of the show, but found one of the cross talks between Como, Durante and Bancroft quoted like this:
- "Ray Charles, he's really something," said Como.
- "A real genius," said Bancroft.
- "He studied with me for years," wisecracked Durante.

A tribute video to the other Ray Charles:

Ray Charles' UGC From The Wyndham Estate (2002)

Nowadays, whenever a musician picks up his instrument, people flip on their mobile phone cams, tape it, and share the footage on the Interweb. The phenomenon of audience-taped, web-shared concert recordings really took off in 2005, with the launch of YouTube. Just a bit too late for Ray.
Of Ray Charles' concerts I only know (writing from the top of my head) audience tapings from shows in Stockholm, Milan, Oulo, Antibes and - since today - a show at the Wyndham Winery in Australia. It's a partial, 22-minute taping of a symphony gig with:

1. Intro
2. They Can't Take That Away From Me
3. Your Cheating Heart
4. All I Ever Need Is You (alto sax solo by Ray Charles)
5. Yesterday (intro: piano teacher story, with bits of Chopin and Schumann)
6. What'd I Say
7. Outro

The concert took place on February 23, 2002. The videographer's hand was not overly steady, and the sound quality is just bearable. The symphony orchestra, enhanced by The Ray Charles Trio (I recognized Tom Fowler, Brad Rabuchin and Peter Turre), was conducted by Victor Vanacore (who also plays a few notes on the piano during #6). Only the tracks #2 and #6 were taped completely.
The day before Ray played at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne (possibly with the same symphony orchestra). The review of that concert also seems to describe the gig at the Wyndham Estate quite adequately:

By the way - here you can still make reservations for the Wyndham concert;-!

Note To Readers: Google Translate Feature Added

Ray Charles On The Joey Bishop Show (1968, 1969)

Ray with Joey Bishop.

The Joey Bishop Show had a few runs, in different formats - first as a sitcom broadcast by NBC (1961–64) and CBS (1964–65), then as a late night talkshow aired from April 1967 to December 1969, taped at the ABC Studios in Hollywood. Ray Charles guested at least four times in the 1968 and 1969 seasons.
I don't know if the shows have survived on video, but a friend recently send me an audio tape (with an acceptable sound quality) with Ray's contributions to the first three shows listed below.

1. In the show of  March 26, 1968 (the Atlanta Daily World announced the show for March 21), Ray played two rare medleys, and he accompanied George Burns on 2 tunes:

1. I've Got A Woman (with Für Elise intro)/Hallelujah I love Her So/What’d I Say
2. I Can’t Stop Loving You/Georgia On My Mind 
3. Ain’t Misbehavin’ – George Burns with Ray Charles (p)
4. Willie The Weeper – George Burns with Ray Charles (p)

For the medleys he was backed by Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Jack Sterling on drums. George Burns' renditions of the 3d and 4th tune were part of a not-so-funny stand-up; Charles had a minor role, both talking and playing the piano.

2. On July 18, 1968 Ray performed:

1. You Made Me Love You
2. The Bright Lights And You Girl
3. I Can’t Stop Loving You (with Joey Bishop)

He was backed by the Johnny Mann orchestra, again with Ellis, Brown, and Sterling as the rhythm section. 

3. On February 20, 1969 Brother Ray came back to play:

1. Sweet Lorraine
2. Jazz jam (with Johnny Mann band and trio w. Ray Brown)

Sweet Lorraine got an extremely delicate treatment in Ray's best Nat Cole mode, again supported by the Johnny Mann orchestra, Ellis and Brown, but this time with Louie Bellson on drums. The Genius then, to his obvious pleasant surprise, was lured into a great jazz jam with the orchestra and the trio.

The rendition of Lorraine is a hapax in Ray's oeuvre. If the video mother tape of the show still exists, it certainly deserves a record release.

4. The precise contents of the show on August 26, 1969 are unknown to me, except for the guest list, with Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows and Billy Preston. I suppose Ray performed (something) together with the latter. I doubt if any footage of this show has survived.