Ray Charles Robinson; Introduction

                     There are many great musicians out there in this world, but there is only one that captured everyone’s heart. Only one that was blind and could play the piano in a way that was so unique that it captured everyone’s attention and still does even to this day on April 12, 2012, eight years after his death. This man’s name was Ray Charles Robinson who is mainly known as just Ray Charles, that’s a story for later on. To this day you can still watch Ray Charles perform maybe not live but perform none the less at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG-tHlwRToI (over one hundred minutes of rare Ray Charles concert footage from the legendary 1961 Antibes Jazz Festival in France.) The newly discovered footage, featuring an 1 hour and 45 minutes of performances, show Ray Charles in his prime period with the original Raelettes and his most legendary band (including David “Fathead” Newman and Hank Crawford.)(Page 1 of 5 of the printed copy of Ray Charles from http://raycharles.com home page.) These concerts were some of Mr. Charles first performances that helped to get him as famous and great as he was and still is to this day. No one will ever forget Ray, his name and music will live on forever. His music helped many people in many ways whether it gave someone motivation or just simply made someone feel better it still helped. He was one of a kind and no one will ever be able to replace the great Ray Charles.

Rays Childhood; Category 1; Entry 1

 Rays Childhood Family

            Ray was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia; his original birth name was Ray Charles Robinson. His origin was in Greenville, Florida. He was born to a woman by the name of Aretha Robinson (maiden name of Williams) whom was a sharecropper. His Father’s name was Bailey Robinson whom was a railroad repair man, mechanic, and a handyman. Aretha Williams was a devout Christian and the family attended the New Shiloh Baptist Church. While Ray was still an infant the family ended up moving from Georgia, and to the poorer black community in Greenville, Florida. When Ray was younger he had an interest in mechanics, he often would sit and watch the other people in the neighborhood working on their cars and the farm tractors and machinery. He later became interested in music when he would go down to Mr. Wiley Pits Red Wing Café and listen to Pit paying on an upright piano. Mr. Pit would care for Rays little brother George trying to take the burden off of the Williams. Although that would soon come to an end. 

Rays Childhood; Category 1; Entry 2

Georges Death

            When Ray was only five years old he helplessly watched as his four year old brother George drowned in a washtub. There isn’t much information about Rays little brother or the accident. But later on down the road Ray would feel a ton of guilt over the death of his brother. Much later down the road Rays son Ray Charles Robinson Jr. states that the legendary Ray Charles hid the pain and guilt that he felt from not being able to save his little brother that day. Ray Jr. insists that his father never recovered from watching his little brother drown in that wash tub. He also states that getting his father to talk about his little brother was almost impossible…that you could see that he still held himself responsible for Georges death: Mr. Charles Jr. States “the last thing my father remembers from that day is the sight of his mother, her face streaming with tears, carrying Georges lifeless body into a cabin.” (Page 1 of 2 printed from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/views/w0003860.html). Even in the movie about Ray called “Ray” it shows that Ray would hallucinate or feel things that weren’t really there, like water around him and then feel his dead brother’s body.

Rays Childhood; Category 1; Entry 3

Rays Eye Sight

                Ray starts to lose his sight at the age of five years old. He went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. His mother sent him to attend the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine from 1937to1945. (Source found on page 2 of 13 printed from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles underneath Early Life: 1930-1945). It was at that school that Ray began to develop his talent for music. It was during that time that Ray performed on a radio in St. Augustine. While Ray was at the school he was only taught classical music, but his heart was in jazz and blues that he had heard on the family radio. Ray had become the schools premier musician while he remained at the school. (Source found on page 2 of 13 printed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles in Early Life: 1930-1945). On Fridays one of the campuses would hold assemblies where Ray would play the piano and sing popular songs for the school. On special occasions such as Halloween or Washington’s Birthday the colored part of the school would hold get together where Mr. Charles would play for them. It was at the colored department of the school that Ray established “RC Robinson and The Shop Boys” and would sing his own little version of “Jingle Bell Boogie”. Ray spent his first Christmas alone at the school but later on the staff would pitch in the money so that Ray could return to his hometown as he did in the summer.

Rays Childhood; Category 1; Reflection

                My thoughts about Ray Charles is that he had a hard life to begin with before he ever lost his eye sight or witnessed his younger brother’s death. Ray was born into extreme poverty, and when I say that I mean that he was at the very bottom of the list he was lower than low. I agree that Ray never recovered from watching his brother drown in that wash tub and not being able to save him, but I also think that no one would ever recover from having watched something of that nature. And yes Ray was already losing his eye sight since he was the age of five and yes it may have been from the disease that we all now call glaucoma, but I also believe that him witnessing his brother’s death put a huge toll on him and contributed to the loosing of his eyes sight.

Rays Adulthood and Career; Category 2; Entry 1

 Early Career:

                Rays mother died in the year of 1945, Ray didn’t return to school after her death. He then stayed in Jacksonville, Florida with some old friends of his mothers. For around about a year he just played the piano for a few bands over at the Ritz Theatre. He later moved to Orlando and a little later on went ahead and moved off to Tampa where he started playing with a band Called The Florida Playboys. While playing with this band he got the habit of wearing sunglasses, designed by a man by the name of Billy Stickles. He had always played in those other bands for people but he wanted to do his own thing. After awhile Ray decided to leave the band and his life in Florida so that he could move to a larger city, although he thought Chicago and New York to big. He finally decided to have a friend look at a map for him to tell him the farthest city in the U.S. that was the farthest away from Florida. (Source found on page 3 of 13 printed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles). The city that Ray ended up going to just so happened to be Seattle, the place where he would soon meet the 14 year old Mr. Quincy Jones. (Ray would soon befriend Quincy). Soon after getting to Seattle Ray would begin recording for the Down Beat label as the Maxin Trio with Mr. G.D. McKee along with a Mr. Milton Garrett. Ray achieved his first hit with “Confession Blues” in the year of 1949. The song soon made it all the way to number two on the R&B charts. Ray then joined in with Swing Time Records changing his own name to Ray Charles to avoid being confused with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Soon Ray had recorded two more R&B hits, “ Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand” made it to number five in 1951 than in 1952 recorded “Kissa Me Baby” which made it to number eight.

Rays Adulthood and Career; Category 2; Entry 2

Atlantic Records

                Just after Ray signed with Atlantic records he recorded “Mess Around”, which became his first hit single. He recorded a few more songs but what got him on up there in the business and got everybody’s attention was his hit “I Got a Woman”. “I Got a Woman reached the top of the R&B billboards single chart in 1955. From 1955 to 1959 Ray would end up making a ton of R&B successes. During Ray’s transition from R&B to Blues he recruited a group of young females from Philadelphia that went by the name “The Cookies”. Ray needed the young woman as his background singers; he would end up recording with them and changing their name to “The Raelettes”. In 1959 Ray would end up leaving Atlantic shortly after recording “The Genius of Ray Charles” to sign with ABC-Paramount Records when they offered him higher pays and more fame plus the ownership of his master recordings. (Source found on page 2 of 8 printed from http://www.nathanielturner.com/raycharleschronology.htm). Ray ended up getting a larger pop audience out of this transition as well. The reason for this was his very own version of Hoagy Carmichaels 1930s song “Georgia on My Mind” (one of his first songs to win him a Grammy). After his remade hit came “Hit the Road Jack.” Ray ended up expanding his group into the huge band and made and instrumental jazz album called “Genius+Soul=Jazz.