[Dixielandjazz] RAY CHARLES

[john petters]

Where the hell is the music world going asks Steve?
I am very happy that Ray Charles was recognised. He was a great jazz artiste
who occasionally suffered from poor material. I'm not fond of some of the
things he did with rock beats. However his jazzing of the country repertoire
was fist class, as was Georgia, although the BBC said he made it into an
American standard. Just shows how short the media's memory is. I think that
Louis Armstrong had something to do with the song achieving that status as
did Bix and of course Hoagy. 

The much celebrated movie 'Ray' is well worth seeing. The music is
wonderful. As for fusion between blues, jazz, gospel, soul & R&B, Chares was
at his best, as are all jazz artistes, when they swing. Black music lost the
plot in the '60s with square rock beats,typified by the Motown sound,  which
replaced the jumping rhythm sections of great artistes like Charles and
Louis Jordan. Some of the so called jazz artistes who are new to today's
scene, eg, Jamie Culham, seem so uncomfortable swinging that they have to
divert into rock or latin rhythms as soon as possible. It is almost as if
they are frightened by it. Let's applaud the recognition Ray Charles has
been given and hope that it may rub of on a media and a public so
conditioned to compressed drivel that has no musical value, no dynamics and
nothing to offer, like the garbage paraded on last weeks Brit awards in the
UK. Let's also hope that once responsible broadcasters, like the BBC offer
some prime air time to popular music of an era pre dating 1960, rather than
shunting it off to late night ghetto spots. That way, there just might be an
opportunity for traditional jazz to become accepted by the masses again. 

John Petters
Amateur Radio Station G3YPZ
www.traditional-jazz.com