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Ray Charles: Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz
Ray Charles Genius + Soul = Jazz
Concord Music
2010
Ray Charles spent the 1950s and 1960s transforming the atomic American musics of gospel, the blues, R&B and country into what has been tagged "soul." Should jazz have been immune to his considerable charms? No, of course not. During the early 1960s, Charles was making his transition from Atlantic Records to ABC Records. This transition was surrounded by the releases of The Genius Sings The Blues (Atlantic, 1961), The Genius After Hours (Atlantic, 1961), The Genius Hits the Road (ABC, 1960) and Genius + Soul = Jazz (ABC, 1961). Here released in an expanded, 2-CD set, Genius + Soul = Jazz signaled that Charles was not merely interested in producing marketable pop music, but that he was also intent on expanding his, and as a result the public's, musical palette.
Charles had already transformed gospel and R&B into soul, in the 1950s, with single releases such as "I Got A Woman" (1955), "Hallelujah I Love Her So" (1956) and "What'd I Say" (1959). Leaving Atlantic for ABC, Charles continued his genre-bending assault on American music with "Georgia On My Mind" (1960) and "Hit The Road Jack" (1961), and in 1961 also released three singles taken from Genius + Soul = Jazz: "I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town," "I've Got News For You" and "One Mint Julep." Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (ABC) would come in the next year and Charles' jazz series—My Kind Of Jazz (Tangerine, 1970), Jazz Number II (Tangerine, 1972), and My Kind Of Jazz, Part 3 (Tangerine, 1975)—would follow a decade later.
Concord Music Group and producer Nick Phillips have assembled the original Genius + Soul = Jazz and Charles' three Tangerine jazz albums into this 2-CD set. The odd-man-out on this release is "Misty," arranged by trombonist 
Steve Turre
tromboneb.1948
The original Genius + Soul = Jazz was recorded at 
Rudy Van Gelder
various1924 - 2016
Count Basie
piano1904 - 1984
Thad Jones
trumpet1923 - 1986
Joe Newman
trumpet1922 - 1992
Billy Mitchell
synthesizer1926 - 2001
Frank Wess
saxophone, tenor1922 - 2013
Freddie Green
guitar, acoustic1911 - 1987
Sonny Payne
drums1926 - 1979
Jimmy Smith
organ, Hammond B31925 - 2005
The session was produced by Creed Taylor. The arrangers included longtime Charles associate Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns and were recorded over December 26-27, 1960. The LP was was originally released on ABC's newly minted imprint, Impulse!, the second release for the famous label (after trombonists' 
J.J. Johnson
trombone
1924 - 2001
Charles sings on three songs—"I've Got News For You," "I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town," and his little bit of fun with the band on The Clovers' "One Mint Julep." All are blues-inflected R&B with added big band momentum. The spirit of Basie exists throughout Genius but never at the expense of the leader, who spars brightly with Basie's band in creating this masterpiece. But where Basie liberally seasons Genius..., it is 100% Ray Charles producing the three Jazz recordings.
Charles' 1970s catalog is largely nondescript save for the three recordings of instrumental jazz making up his Tangerine jazz triptych. If a thread, other than the blues, passes through all of these recordings, it is that of drummer 
Art Blakey
drums
1919 - 1990
Bobby Timmons
piano
1935 - 1974
Benny Golson
saxophone, tenor
1929 - 2024
Horace Silver
piano
1928 - 2014
Lee Morgan
trumpet
1938 - 1972
The Concord Music Group's re-issue of Genius + Soul = Jazz and the associated Tangerine releases represents the most complete reading of Ray Charles' legacy in jazz. That legacy is often discounted in favor of his earlier Atlantic sides, but few could swing as hard as Charles, as these sides allow. It will be with open ears that we might expect the future releases from the Ray Charles archives.
Tracks: CD1: From The Heart; I've Got News For You; Moanin'; Let's Go; One Mint Julep; I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts OfTown; Stompin' Room Only; Mister C; Strike Up The Band; Birth Of The Blues; Golden Boy; Booty-Butt; This Here; I Remember Clifford; Sidewinder; Bluesette; Pas-Se-O-Me Blues; Zig Zag; Angel City; Senor Blues. CD2: Our Suite; A Pair Of Threes; Morning Of Carnival (Manha De Carnival); Going Home; Kids Are Pretty People; Togetherness; Brazilian Skies; I'm Gonna Go Fishin'; For Her; Sister Sadie; 3/4 Of The Time; Ray Minor Ray; Samba De Elencia; Metamorphosis; Nothing Wring; Project "S"; Misty.
Personnel: Ray Charles: keyboards, vocals; various other personnel.
">Personnel
Ray Charles
piano and vocalsAlbum information
Title: Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Unknown label
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