Ray Charles

One of my favourite jazz, blues, R&B, soul and gospel music pianist is Ray Charles Robinson. He was famous for integrating gospel style music and R&B music. He was born in Georgia had some massive hits such as 'Unchain my Heart' and 'Georgia on my mind'. Ray Charles had a rough upbringing. His younger brother drowned in a bucket in an unfortunate accident when Ray was very young. He had no other siblings and at the age of 7, Ray went blind. His mother died when Ray was still quite young and he never saw much of his father because he had 3 different families with 3 different women. His mother sent him to a state sponsored school for the deaf and blind in Florida where he learnt to read, write and arrange music.

Ray quickly became a great success after writing the song 'I got a Woman'. His new style of mixing jazz and gospel helped to create a new genre known as soul. While on the road and performing his songs, Ray got addicted to drugs such as heroine. Ray eventually admitted himself to a rehabilitation hospital. By the time he entered the hospital, Ray had been arrested, had many arguments with his wife and had had a child with a woman other then his wife. Another thing Ray is famous for is refusing to play in a concert hall in Georgia because it was segregated. Because of this, he was banned from playing in Georgia. This ban was eventually lifted and Ray's song 'Georgia on my Mind' became the official state song of Georgia.


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I personally love Rays music. He completely broke the boundaries of musical genres. I personally think that there will never be another artist who will manage to do that as successfully as Ray Charles Robinson did.




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An Introduction to Blues

Music is a wonderful thing. It is it's own form of communicating feelings and emotions. Music can inspire, encourage and bring people together. Jazz Blues music is no different. Blues music originated in the 'Deep South' of America in 'African-American' communities. Blues has influenced almost all modern music including rock and roll, country, jazz and mainstream popular music. W.C. Handy best described blues in this one famous quote;

'The Blues... it's 12-bar, bent-note melody is the anthem of a race, bonding itself together with cries of shared self victimization. Bad luck and trouble are always present in the Blues, and always the result of others, pressing upon unfortunate and down trodden poor souls, yearning to be free from life's' troubles. Relentless rhythms repeat the chants of sorrow, and the pity of a lost soul many times over. This is the Blues.'

Blues isn't the happiest of music genres. It tends to focus on rhythm quite a lot and the lyrics often talk about the troubles of the composer. However there is some upbeat styles of blues. One example of a blues artists with this style is B.B King. In my blog, I will look at the different styles of certain artists, blues rhythms, famous pieces and more. If you have an interest in blues, I am sure you will find my blog interesting.

Jazz is usually quite upbeat and can contain very difficult rhythms and notation. Jazz was born in New Orleans around 100 years ago. Many great jazz artists have come from New Orleans since then, for example, Professor Longhair.


Photo from: http://www.nndb.com/people/034/000045896/