Ray Charles: the 100 most inspiring musicians of all time
Ray Charles Robinson (b. Sept. 23, 1930, Albany, Ga., U.S.—d. June 10, 2004, Beverly Hills, Calif.) was an American pianist, singer, composer, and bandleader.
Ray Charles was a leading entertainer, often billed as “the Genius.” Charles was credited with the early development of soul music, a style based on a melding of gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz music.
When Ray Charles was an infant, his family moved to Greenville, Florida, and he began his musical career at age five on a piano in a neighbourhood café. He began to go blind at six, possibly from glaucoma, completely losing his sight by age seven. He attended the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, where he concentrated on musical studies, but left school at age 15 to play the piano professionally after his mother died from cancer (his father had died when the boy was 10).
Ray Charles built a remarkable career based on the immediacy of emotion in his performances. After emerging as a blues and jazz pianist indebted to Nat King Cole’s style in the late 1940s, Charles recorded the boogie-woogie classic “Mess Around” and the novelty song “It Should’ve Been Me” in 1952–53. His arrangement for Guitar Slim’s “The Things That I Used to Do” became a blues million-seller in 1953.
By 1954 Charles had created a successful combination of blues and gospel influences and signed on with Atlantic Records. Propelled by Charles’s distinctive raspy voice, “I’ve Got a Woman” and “Hallelujah I Love You So” became hit records. “What’d I Say” led the rhythm-and-blues sales
charts in 1959 and was Charles’s own first million-seller.
Ray Charles’s rhythmic piano playing and band arranging revived the “funky” quality of jazz, but he also recorded in many other musical genres. He entered the pop market with the bestsellers “Georgia on My Mind” (1960) and “Hit the Road, Jack” (1961). His album Modern Sounds in
Country and Western Music (1962) sold more than one million copies, as did its single, “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” Thereafter, his music emphasized jazz standards and renditions of pop and show tunes.
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Takashi Yoshimatsu – Piano Folio … To a disappeared pleiad | ||
Take Five (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Take Five by Paul Desmond Jazz Play Along | ||
Take Five Guitar by Chet Atkins.mscz | ||
Take Five Jazz Standard by Paul Desmond arranged for Guitar by Chet Atkins with Tablature TABs | Take Five Jazz Standard by Paul Desmond arranged for Guitar by Chet Atkins with Tablature | |
Take Five Jazz Standard Paul Desmond Dave Brubeck arr. Carsten Gerlitz | ||
Take Me To The Land Of Jazz by Pete Wendling (1919) | ||
Take That – Could It Be Magic | ||
Take That – How Deep Is Your Love | Take That how-deep-is-your-love | |
Takemitsu – Secret Love Guitar with TABs | ||
Takemitsu, Toru – 12 Songs for guitar | ||
Tales Of Earthsea Teeru No Uta Kashuu Baajon Taniyama Hiroko Miyazaki Tomochika | ||
Talking Heads Anthology | Talking Heads Anthology | |
Tally Hall Hidden In The Sand (Piano Solo) | ||
Tangled – Alan Menken OST | Alan Menken – Tangled (Disney) Rapunzel songbook | |
Tango El Caramel (Khaled Mouzanar) | ||
Tango Fake Book | Tango Fake Book | |
Tangos And More (Intermediate Piano Solos) | Tangos And More (Intermediate Piano Solos) | |
Tangos Para Guitarra | Tangos | |
Tania Maria Yatra Ta | ||
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Tanta voglia di lei (Pooh) | ||
Tarantella in 3rd class (Ennio Morricone) | ||
Taro Iwashiro – Her Most Beautiful Smile | ||
Tárrega – Làgrima (Guitar Tabs) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Tàrrega 12 Studies for Guitar Guitarra | ||
Tàrrega Integral De Guitarra | Tàrrega guitar | |
Tàrrega, F. – Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Guitar).mscz | ||
Tarzan (Disney) songbook Music by Phil Collins | ||
Tarzan Full Score (The Musical) Music and Lyrics by Phil Collins | ||
Tausig – Ballad (The Ghostship – Das Geisterschiff) | ||
Taverner, John – In Nomine (full score) MS 31390 fol. 120 | ||
Taylor Billy Modern Jazz Piano Solos | ||
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Taylor Swift Evermore Piano vocal guitar Songbook (Taylor Swift) | ||
Taylor Swift Lover Songbook (Taylor Swift) | Taylor Swift Lover Songbook (Taylor Swift) | |
Taylor Swift – ME! Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Reputation Songbook (Taylor Swift) | Taylor Swift Reputation Songbook (Taylor Swift) | |
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Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (Piano Sheet Music) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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Taylor Swift – Best Of Taylor Swift Easy Piano Songbook (Swift, Taylor) | Taylor Swift – Best Of Taylor Swift Songbook (Swift, Taylor) | |
Taylor Swift – Blank Space (piano vocal sheet music) | Taylor Swift – Blank Space (piano vocal sheet music) | |
Taylor Swift – Fearless | ||
Taylor Swift – Fearless (Guitar and TABS Songbook) | Taylor Swift – Fearless (Guitar and TABS Songbook) | |
Taylor Swift – Fearless Songbook Piano and vocal | Taylor Swift – Fearless Songbook | |
Taylor Swift – I Knew you were trouble (piano and voice sheet music) | ||
Taylor Swift – Untouchable | ||
Taylor Swift A Place In This World Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift All Too Well (10 Minute Version) Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Bad Blood Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Best Of Taylor Swift Very Easy Piano songbook | Taylor Swift Best Of Taylor Swift Very Easy Piano songbook | |
Taylor Swift Cardigan Sheet Music | ||
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Taylor Swift Love Story Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Nothing New Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Piano Theme The Giver | ||
Taylor Swift Piano Theme The Giver V2 | ||
Taylor Swift Safe Andsound | ||
Taylor Swift Shake It Off Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift Shake It Off Sheet-Music | ||
Taylor Swift Speak Now Songbook (Guitar Recorded Versions) (Swift Taylor) Guitar TABs | Taylor Swift Speak Now Songbook (Guitar Recorded Versions) (Swift Taylor) Guitar TABs | |
Taylor Swift The Whole Story Unauthorised (Newkey Burden, Chas) Book | ||
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Taylor Swift White Horse Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift You Belong With Me Sheet Music | ||
Taylor Swift You Need To Calm Down Sheet Music PDF | ||
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Tchaikovsky Dance Of The Four Swans Transcribed For Piano By Earl Wild Sheet Music | ||
Tchaikovsky Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy (Easy Piano Solo Arr.) | ||
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Tchaikovsky Waltz From The Sleeping Beauty Suite (Rachmaninoff Four Hands) Read Description (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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Tchaikovsky – 1812 Festival Overture Op. 49 (full score) | ||
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Tchaikovsky – Harmony Book | Tchaikovsky – Harmony Book | |
Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite For Solo Classical Guitar with TABs | Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite For Solo Classical Guitar with TABs | |
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Tchaikovsky – Romeo And Juliet Fantasy Overture For Solo Piano.mxl | ||
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Tchaikovsky – Symphony 6 Easy Piano Solo (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Suite (No 7) Pas De Deux (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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Tchaikovsky – Waltz of the Flowers from The Nutcraker Suite Piano Solo arr.mscz | ||
Tchaikovsky -March From The Nutcracker Suite – Transcription By Pletnev (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Tchaikovsky (H. Pachulski) Symphony No. 6, 4th Movement (Piano solo arr.) | Tchaikovsky (H. Pachulski) Symphony No. 6, 4th Movement (Piano solo arr.) | |
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Tchaikovsky None But The Lonely Heart Six Romances Op. 6 No. 6 (Violin And Piano) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Tchaikovsky None but the Lonely Hert Op. 6 no. 6 | ||
Tchaikovsky op 40 Twelve Pieces (excerpts) | Tchaikovsky op 40 Twelve Pieces | |
Tchaikovsky Opus 37 The Seasons (Piano) | Tchaikovsky The Seasons | |
Tchaikovsky Piano Book 3 – 10 musical selections, Easy Piano Solo arrangements | Tchaikovsky Piano Book 3 | |
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 1st Mvmt (Arr For 2 Pianos) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Easy Piano Solo Arr. (Musescore File).mscz |
From 1955, Ray Charles toured extensively in the United States and elsewhere with his own big band and a gospelstyle female backup quartet called The Raeletts. He also appeared on television and worked in films such as Ballad in Blue (1964) and The Blues Brothers (1980) as a featured act and soundtrack composer. He formed his own custom recording labels, Tangerine in 1962 and Crossover Records n 1973.
The recipient of many national and international awards, he received 13 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 1987. In 1986 Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Kennedy Center Honor. He published an autobiography, Brother Ray, Ray Charles’ Own Story (1978), written with David Ritz.
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Ray Charles in Copenhagen 1973
Track List:
0:00 Intro 5:29 Hallelujah I Love Her So (Ray Charles) 9:08 Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael & Stuart Gorrell) 15:09 You Made Me Love You (James V. Monaco & Joseph McCarthy) 18:12 Yesterday (Paul McCartney) 23:43 Feel So Bad (J. Johnson) 30:05 Goin’ Down Slow (“St. Louis” Jimmy Oden) 37:27 Goin’ Down Slow (Bis) 39:45 Intro Raelettes 44:16 Rocksteady (Aretha Franklin)
48:55 I Can’t Stop Loving You (Don Gibson) 54:48 Look What They Have Done To My Song, Ma (The New Seekers) 59:58 Indian Love Call (Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald) 1:14:40 Eleanor Rigby (Paul McCartney & John Lennon) 1:18:47 Introduction John Henderson 1:23:10 Shake (Ray Charles) 1:27:35 Ray introducing Raelettes by name; in call and response improv) 1:39:20 Leave My Man Alone (Vernita Moss) 1:42:54 Introduction band 1:43:41 So Soon (John Henderson) 1:48:30 What’d I Say (Ray Charles)