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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA SpecialEnglish. Today we begin a two-part report about singer, songwriter,and musician Ray Charles. His work will continue to have a lastinginfluence on American music.
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VOICE ONE:
Ray Charles spent almost sixty years as a professional musician.Millions of people around the world enjoy his recordings. If RayCharles only played the piano, he would have been considered one ofthe best. If he had only sung his music, his voice would have madehim famous. If he had only played jazz music, the world would havelistened. But Ray Charles did all these things and more.
He played and sang rock-and-rolland rhythm-and-blues songs. He sold millions of country and westernrecords, too. His work brought together different kinds of music anddifferent kinds of music fans. His influence on much of America’spopular music cannot be truly measured.
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VOICE ONE (CONTD):
That was Ray Charles and “One Mint Julep.” He recorded that songin nineteen-sixty-one on an album called “Genius Plus Soul EqualsJazz.” It is one of the many hundreds of records he recorded.
VOICE TWO:
Ray Charles Robinson was born in nineteen-thirty in Albany,Georgia. When he was six years old, he began to suffer from the eyedisease glaucoma. The disease made him blind. He left the world ofsight forever and turned to the world of sound. He learned to lovesounds, especially music of all kinds.
Ray Charles taught himself to playthe organ, alto-saxophone, clarinet and trumpet. Yet there was aspecial relationship between him and the piano. Here is part of thesong “Worried Mind.” The style is country and western, with a heavyinfluence of blues. Listen to his work on the piano, an instrumenthe truly loved. You can almost see him smiling.
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VOICE ONE:
Ray Charles was fifteen years old when his mother died. Within ayear, he had left school to work. He began playing pianoprofessionally in African-American eating and drinking places in thestate of Florida.
A year later, he moved to the opposite corner of America:Seattle, Washington. While in Seattle, he made forty records. Butnone was a success.
VOICE TWO:
At that time, Ray Charles was trying to play the piano and singlike the famous performer Nat King Cole. But he quickly learnedthere was only one Nat King Cole. No one wanted to hear a copy, noteven a good copy.
So Charles started looking for his own musical sound. He began toexperiment. He tried mixing blues and jazz. He used some jazz styleswith the music that later was known as rock-and-roll. Hisexperiments soon became popular with many black Americans.
He played at dances around the country. He also sold somerecords, mostly to black people. Few white Americans had heard of ablind musician named Ray Charles.
VOICE ONE:
By the middle of thenineteen-fifties, he had his own band. It was one of the mostpopular black dance bands in the country. A group of women sang withthe band.
One night, Charles began playing a simple song. He told the womento sing in a style known as call and response. In this style, thelead singer asks a question or sings some words. The other singersanswer. This kind of singing was brought to America by black slavesfrom Africa. It has remained very popular in black church music.
At the dance that night, Ray Charles put together simple pianomusic, traditional call and response, and rock-and-roll. The resultwas a revolution in American music. Soon after, Ray recorded thatsong. It is called “What’d I Say?”
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VOICE TWO:
“What’d I Say?” sold millions of copies. Ray Charles no longerjust played at small dances for black people. He performed in largetheaters for big audiences of every color. He had found a sound likeno other. His style of music was filled with excitement. And thosewho listened shared in that excitement.
By the end of the nineteen-fifties, Ray Charles had recorded manyhit songs. Most of his music was black rhythm-and-blues or soulmusic. Yet white Americans were listening, too.
Charles did not want to play just one kind of music, even if itwas extremely popular. He began experimenting again, this time withjazz. One album, “Black Coffee,” is considered by experts to be oneof his very best jazz recordings. It shows that his piano work canexpress many different feelings. Here is the song “Black Coffee”from that album.
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VOICE ONE:
Ray Charles continued to make rhythm-and-blues and jazz records.But that was still not enough for him. He had always lovedcountry-and-western music. So he decided to record a country album.
Music industry experts said he wasmaking a mistake. They told him not to do it. They said he wouldlose many fans. The fans, they said, would not understand or likethis kind of music. Ray Charles did not listen to the experts. Hetook a chance. And he was right. The public loved hiscountry-and-western songs. You can hear some of thesecountry-and-western songs next week, when we bring you the secondpart of our report about Ray Charles.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byLawan Davis. I’m Doug Johnson.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us next week for the second part ofour program on Ray Charles on People In America, in VOA SpecialEnglish.