Ray Charles has passed on

[kyblueintenn]

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Ray Charles (news), the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and ballads like "Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73.
Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.

Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood (news) on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.

Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South.

Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood (news) on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark.
"His sound was stunning — it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing — it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison (news) told Rolling Stone magazine in April.

Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").

His versions of other songs are also well known, including "Makin' Whoopee" and a stirring "America the Beautiful." Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote "Georgia on My Mind" in 1931 but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard.

"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of," Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, "Brother Ray." "Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water." For more:
Ray I loved Ray's music and his rendition of America would simply put chills all over me. Rest in Peace Ray

[kentubbybasketball]

I don't know much about Charles. I'm so young, so I wasn't touched by his music, but my prayers are definitely with his family.

[BlueCat]

Ray was another of those men of color that was able to transcend the racial barrier, and be looked at as a great person, and human being rather than a black man. Ray said he couldn't understand racism. Asked the question how a person could hate him because of his color, and then ask his mother to cook for them. Pretty profound IMO

[MyBlueHeaven]

Ray Charles was a brief focas of study in one of my college courses, while I was a music major.

One thing that I learned, in that class, was that he was such a unique innovator in American music history.

A little trivia......What was he the first to do, that nearly all recording artists do today? I'll give you a hint....it was when he recorded his single "What I Say".

[kyblueintenn]

MyBlueHeaven said:

Ray Charles was a brief focas of study in one of my college courses, while I was a music major.

One thing that I learned, in that class, was that he was such a unique innovator in American music history.

A little trivia......What was he the first to do, that nearly all recording artists do today? I'll give you a hint....it was when he recorded his single "What I Say".

Come on, give up the goods !!!

[MyBlueHeaven]

Mr. Charles was the first to have a hit on the charts using a synthesized keyboard.