Showing posts with label Ray Charles. Show all posts

2015-11-23

History Lesson: The Seattle Music Scene – Ray Charles and Quincy Jones | FROM BOYZ 2 MEN

History Lesson: The Seattle Music Scene – Ray Charles and Quincy Jones | FROM BOYZ 2 MEN

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!

HISTORY LESSON: THE SEATTLE MUSIC SCENE – RAY CHARLES AND QUINCY JONES

When I think ray and quincy in life

about Seattle, Washington, I think about three things. First, Seattle Grace Hospital, the setting for Grey’s Anatomy, second the Seattle Seahawks home of Marshawn Lynch and third never ending rain. I had no idea that even before Grey’s and Marshawn Seattle, in the 1940s, was home to a vibrant culture of Jazz and a new genre now known as R&B (then called “race records”). It was a Northwest Renaissance of sorts much like the one in Harlem in the 1920s.

One day in 1948, in the midst of the bubbling Seattle music scene two young men crossed paths – Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. Ray Charles, a blind pianist from Florida, moved to Seattle because he wanted to move as far away from where he was as possible. Quincy Jones was from the Southside of Chicago. He went west as a child when his father had to flee Chicago after getting involved with a black organized crime family.

Event - Unknown location, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles - Early 1960s

Upon his arrival in Seattle, Charles found work playing in white clubs in the day time and black clubs at night. His talent was undeniable and word about his performances soon spread around town. One evening Charles was playing at the Elks Club and 14-year-old Quincy Jones came in determined to see for himself the “blind dude” who was “tearing the place up with his singing and playing.” Jones certainly found what he was looking for and the two quickly formed a friendship.

Jones was immediately struck by how independent Charles was despite his blindness. Charles lost his sight at the age of seven, but his mother still made him learn things on his own and she let him explore the world freely. From that he learned to navigate the world with little to no help. When he met Jones years latter he had his own apartment, he could cook for himself and cross the street without being hit. Jones was also in awe of Charles’ talent for writing and composing music, and he wanted to learn everything he could from him.

Later Charles described Jones saying “He was just an energetic young kid and he really loved music. He wanted to learn how to write, and of course, I knew how to write, and that drew us together–because I could help him out and show him some things about how to compose.” Jones would call Charles early in the morning to get help with writing and even after working all night Charles would get up to help him. Charles stated that he “could tell that [Jones] wanted to learn…and because I was able to show him some things, that made me happy.”

Unfortunately, these two musicians would have little time together in Seattle. Ray Charles left the city in 1950 to go on tour with the blues singer Lowell Fulson and his band. In 1951, Quincy Jones left for college in Boston, but shortly after, he left school and went on tour with Lionel Hampton‘s band. Even though their time in Seattle was gall.Raycharles.getty

short, both Charles and Jones credit the city with giving them their big breaks. Charles stated that “Seattle is the town where I made my first record. And if you ever want to say where I got my start, you have to say that.” That record was “Rockin’ Chair Blues” named after another Seattle night club, the Rocking Chair, which was a hit “race record” in 1949. For Jones, it was in Seattle where he had his first opportunity, while still in high school, to go on tour with Lionel Hampton, but he was kicked off the tour bus by Hampton’s wife because he was so young.

Both Ray Charles and Quincy Jones came a long way from smoky night clubs in Seattle, Washington. Charles became an international superstar and a musical pioneer who helped create the genre of R&B. Some of his greatest hits include “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on my Mind.” Quincy Jones became the super producer behind “Thriller,” Michael Jackson’s record breaking sophomore album which put Pop music on the map. These two men changed the course of music, so it leads one to wonder what would music be if they had never met that night in Seattle.

References

Cassandra Tate. (2004). Charles, Ray (1930-2004). Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5707

Peter Blecha. (2013). Jones, Quincy (b. 1933). Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10354

President and Fellows of Harvard College. (2007). “Who Mentored Ray Charles?” Retrieved from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/chc/wmy/Celebrities/ray_charles.html

Terry Gross. (2013). “Quincy Jones: The Man Behind the Music.” Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2013/05/27/186052477/quincy-jones-the-man-behind-the-music

2014-05-04

Ray Charles often spoke of Seattle, Washington & referred to it as his second home! Charles said: "When i got to Seattle I could see that people were different, they were bettor there, they were much nicer!"

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!

Charles, Ray

Sex: Male

Born: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
23 September 1930

Died: Beverly Hills, California, United States
10 June 2004

Activity/Profession: Blues Musician / Singer, Gospel Musician / Singer, Bandleader, Popular Singer, Pianist

(23 Sept. 1930–10 June 2004),

singer, bandleader, and entrepreneur, was born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia, the son of Bailey Robinson, a day worker, and Aretha (maiden name unknown). Charles's younger brother and only sibling drowned at age four. By the age of seven Charles had lost his sight to glaucoma and was sent to the State School for the Blind and Deaf in St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained until his mother's death when he was fifteen. It was during his time at the school for the blind, which was segregated by race, that he received formal piano lessons and learned to read braille. After his mother's death, he set out on his own, traveling and working as a musician around Jacksonville, Florida.

Charles's earliest influences as a musician were the jazz and blues pianist Charles Brown and the pianist and singer Nat King Cole. His ability to learn the styles of both musicians allowed him to gain work in clubs where audiences were familiar with their music. Sensing the need to branch out beyond Florida, Charles moved to Seattle, Washington, at the age of eighteen. In Seattle, Charles formed a band, the McSon trio, and made his first recording, his own composition, “Confession Blues,” on the Swing Time label owned by Jack Lauderdale, who encouraged Charles to move to Los Angeles in 1950. In Los Angeles, Charles recorded two more singles for Swing Time before he began to tour nationally with the guitarist Lowell Fulson. Charles eventually became Fulson's musical director. In 1952 Charles signed with the Shaw Agency and began to tour nationally as a solo artist. On the strength of his second single, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand,” Charles was signed to a recording contract by Ahmet Ertugen, the founder of Atlantic Records. Charles's first release for the label was “It Should Have Been Me” (1952).

Charles's early recordings with the Atlantic label favored the styles of Charles Brown and Nat Cole—styles that had earned him a minor reputation as a rhythm-and-blues artist. But it was with the single “I've Got a Woman,” backed by “Come Back Baby,” that Charles began to exhibit the innovative style that would become the foundation of soul music. At the core of Charles's innovation was his use of chords and rhythms drawn from black gospel music to write and record music that had distinctly secular themes. “I've Got a Woman,” for example, was based on “Let's Talk about Jesus,” a gospel hit for the Bells of Joy in 1951. Follow-up recordings by Charles, like “A Fool for You” (1955) and “Drown in My Own Tears” (1955), also adhered to Charles's “soul” strategy, but “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” in May of 1956 became his first crossover hit.

Ray Charles crossed musical boundaries and entertained generations of fans. Photographed in 1960. (Library of Congress.)

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As Charles's new style became popular, he began to face criticism from black ministers and gospel audiences. The genius of his burgeoning style was his intuitive understanding that the “Saturday night sinner” and the “Sunday morning saved” were often one and the same. The addition of doo-wop girls called the Raeletts accentuated a feeling of call and response, the verbal interaction common between a black minister and his choir. By the time Charles scored with the gospel-frenzied “What'd I Say,” a top-ten pop single in 1959, he had inspired legions of followers, many of whom, likeSam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, went directly from the black church to the pop charts.

Much of Charles's early success was rooted in his ability to master many musical genres, most notably jazz, rhythm and blues, and soul. After Charles and his band made a successful appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Atlantic capitalized on his growing popularity with the recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959), which included the pop standards “Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” “Come Rain or Shine,” “It Had to Be You,” and the big-band romp “Let the Good Times Roll.” The album was the last that Charles recorded for the label, though there were subsequent releases of previously recorded music. In November 1959 Charles signed with ABC-Paramount, which offered a larger advance on future royalties, a higher rate of royalties, and ownership of his own master recordings. Charles had mixed success with his first two singles for ABC-Paramount, but with the third release he achieved his biggest hit-ever.

Hoagy Carmichael's “Georgia on My Mind” (1960) was an old ballad that sentimentally recalls the American South. Charles infused the song with his unique soulful style and in the process made it one of his signature tunes. The song went to number three on the pop charts and earned Charles the first two of twelve Grammy Awards from the National Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences. The following year Charles achieved his first number-one pop song and another Grammy with Percy Mayfield's “Hit the Road Jack.”

The success of “Georgia on My Mind” signaled a new direction in Charles's recording career. Always fascinated by country-and-western musicians, Charles finally recorded a full-fledged country song, Hank Snow's “I'm Moving On,” toward the end of his tenure at Atlantic. This was followed by Charles's groundbreaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in April 1962. Though ABC-Paramount was fearful that Charles would lose his core fan base, Charles scored his second number-one pop single with “I Can't Stop Loving You.” Despite the label's initial concerns, the song also topped the R&B charts for sixteen weeks. So successful wasModern Sounds in Country and Western Music that Charles released a follow-up in late 1962.Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 2 included versions of Hank Williams's “Your Cheating Heart” and the popular standby “You Are My Sunshine.”

When Charles released Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul in 1963, it was clear that he had so successfully integrated so many genres into his repertoire that it was no longer possible to label his music simply jazz, soul, or country and western. Ray Charles was becoming widely known as a song stylist, as evidenced by the success of his renditions of tracks like “That Lucky Old Sun” and “Ol’ Man River,” both from Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul, and the singles “Without Love (There Is Nothing)” and “Busted,” a top-five single on both the pop and R&B charts. In 1964 Charles was arrested for drug possession in Boston. He received a five-year suspended sentence, kicked his twenty-year heroin addiction, and miraculously continued his music career unabated. Although taste in popular music changed during the 1960s, with the appearance of Motown and British groups like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Charles continued to make quality recordings in his own style. He even covered “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles on his recordings Listen (1967) and A Portrait of Ray (1968). Charles also began to record themes for Hollywood films, the best known being “The Cincinnati Kid” (1965) and “In the Heat of the Night,” the latter from the 1967 film starringSidney Poitier. The film's soundtrack was arranged by Charles's old friend Quincy Jones, whom he had met when he moved to Seattle in 1948. Charles's “Here We Go Again,” released in 1967, was his last major crossover recording until the late 1980s.

Although Charles largely remained on the periphery of the civil rights movement as a recording artist, preferring to provide financial assistance privately, he did offer his political vision on A Message from the People (1972). This album includes versions of Stevie Wonder's “Heaven Help Us All,” James Weldon Johnson's “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often referred to as the “Negro National Anthem”), and Dick Holler's “Abraham, Martin and John.” The recording also features a stirring version of “America the Beautiful” that was re-released as a single in 1976 to coincide with the U.S. bicentennial celebration. Charles also earned a Grammy Award in 1975 for his rendition of Wonder's politically charged “Living for the City.”

Charles recorded regularly with little fanfare throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, though he was feted with awards and acknowledgements. In 1981 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Boulevard “Walk of Fame.” He was among the first inductees into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1986, and in 1979 the state of Georgia declared his version of “Georgia on My Mind” the official state song. Charles released his autobiography Brother Ray, written with David Ritz, in 1978. He had a bit of a renaissance in the mid-1980s, making popular recordings with the country artists Willie Nelson (“Seven Spanish Angels”), George Jones (“We Didn't See a Thing”), and Hank Williams Jr. (“Two Old Cats like Us”). In 1989 he teamed again with Quincy Jones to record “I'll Be Good to You,” with Chaka Khan. The song reached number one on the R&B charts. Charles earned his twelfth Grammy Award in 1993 for “A Song for You.” Popular cameos on Sesame Street and commercial endorsements for Pepsi Cola kept his music and image firmly embedded in the minds of generations of Americans.

Ray Charles was married twice and had nine children, but his music always took precedence over all other activities. He died of liver disease on 10 June 2004 and was buried in Inglewood Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Throughout his career Charles maintained an intense touring schedule, not simply for the economic benefit but also to bring various styles of black music to audiences that may have otherwise remained unfamiliar with them. Charles's influence on American popular music has perhaps been rivaled only by figures like Duke Ellington, B. B.King, and James Brown, all of whom toured well into their sixties and seventies, each holding up the banner for the particular brand of popular music he is best known for. Charles's remarkable ability to draw from many styles of popular music made it possible for him to cross—and thereby diminish—musical, racial, political, and geographical barriers.

This year, SIFF will screen 440 films: 198 features (plus 4 secret films), 60 documentaries, 14 archival films, and 168 shorts, representing 83 countries. The films include 44 World premieres (20 features, 24 shorts), 30 North American premieres (22 features, 8 shorts), and 14 US premieres (8 features, 6 shorts). The Festival will open with the previously announced screening of JIMI: All Is By My Side, the Hendrix biopic starring Outkast’s André Benjamin from John Ridley, Oscar®-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, and close with Charlie McDowell’s twisted romantic comedy The One I Love, produced by Seattle’s Mel Eslyn and starring Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass. In addition, legendary producer and Seattle native Quincy Jones will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the screening of doc Keep on Keepin’ On. The 2014 Seattle International Film Festival is presented by SIFF, the non-profits arts organization that reaches more than 250,000 annually through SIFF Cinema, SIFF Education, and the annual flagship Festival.

“Film is more than entertainment. The life-changing nature of the collective experience of cinema and the stories moving pictures can tell are SIFF’s inspiration and mission every year as we put together the Festival,” says Carl Spence, SIFF’s Artistic Director. “This year, SIFF continues to be a festival of discovery, with more than 100 new directors making their debut. Richard Linklater was one of those filmmakers back in 1990 with the premiere of Slacker; it’s fitting to have him return for our anniversary with his masterwork Boyhood – unlike any other film I’ve seen. I am thrilled to share these films with the world and welcome the hundreds of talented guests expected to attend – from those you’ve heard of to the many who will be making their debut at the Festival.”

In addition to the gala screenings, this year’s premieres and special presentations feature a star-studded lineup including Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Laura Dern in The Fault in Our Stars, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood with Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke; Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock in Keep On Keepin’ On; Kim Basinger, Richard Jenkins and Cam Gigandet in 4 Minute Mile; Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan in Beautiful Noise; Nia Vardalos in Helicopter Mom; Vincent Kartheiser and Olivia Thirlby in Red Knot; Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Miranda Otto, and Mia Wasikowska in The Turning; the voices of Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, and Jay Baruchel in How To Train Your Dragon 2; Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey in I Origins,and Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in They Came Together.

Mary Bacarella, SIFF’s Managing Director, says, “This year’s Festival is an incredibly meaningful milestone for SIFF. We’re all so excited to bring this outstanding lineup of films, guests, forums, and events to our wonderfully supportive and enthusiastic audiences. We’ve created a program this year with moments that will fondly revisit our history and moments that will take us into the future of SIFF. I can’t wait for the fun to begin!”

Festival box office opens May 1 online at SIFF.net, by phone at 206.324.9996, and in person at various locations. View the full public program here.

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2015-11-23