[Dixielandjazz] Ray Charles reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

Ray Charles: Forever (Concord)

by Jeff Simon

Buffalo News, October 11, 2013

Has there been a "Forever" stamp in recent memory that could

cause more jubilation than the announcement of one featuring the

image of Ray Charles?

Not likely.

In commemoration of the U.S. Post Office's commemoration of

Charles' greatness in American music, here is a disc plus DVD of

a half century of his music, from 1959's "Come Rain or Come

Shine," one of the greatest ballad performances in all of

American popular music, and 1961's "I'm Gonna Move to the

Outskirts of Town" (from "Genius + Soul = Jazz") to "Isn't It

Wonderful" from 2010.

There's even one previously unreleased beauty on it, Charles

singing the Gershwins' "They Can't Take That Away From Me," which

the disc not only refuses to date for us, but also on which it

refuses to identify arranger and soloists. Sure, that's no doubt

Charles on Fender Rhodes piano, but if you're going to be in the

business of celebrating how much we agree we always want to

celebrate Charles, you've got to do a whole lot better in the

information department.

Along with the superb stuff here, there is a fair amount of

star-spangled shlock ending with "America the Beautiful," which,

because he was Charles and could carry anything off, he carries

off but just barely. Couldn't, instead of "Till There Was You"

from 1974 or "So Help Me God" from 1994, the disc have reminded a

world that he wasn't just a balladeer, he was the proto-rocker

whose "What'd I Say" and "I Got a Woman" turned blasphemy into

sensuality, joy and some of the greatest ever? Just asking.

-30

-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

"If you don't know where you're going, you might end up some place else."
-Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra