Thursday 12 April, 2001
Ray Charles: The Father Of Soul
What makes Ray Charles so enduring among performers is that he's equally at home singing jazz, gospel, country, or rhythm and blues.
Throughout his life he has shown great strength and has fought to get what he wants. He's a black man from a segregated town in the USA who performed in apartheid South Africa; a blind man who's created a foundation for the deaf.
Now in his 71st year the veteran performer shows no sign of slowing down. In Meridian Masterpiece he talks about what his music means to him, and how, from his earliest days, he's used it to build bridges.
'Soul is a way of life,' Ray Charles once said 'but it is always the hard way'. As the “father of soul” he certainly speaks with some authority on music, and despite becoming a millionaire at the age of 30, he also knows a great deal about the struggles of life.
Beginnings
Ray Charles Robinson was born poor and black in 1930, in the segregated southern state of Georgia, USA. Tutored by a local shop owner, he started to play the piano from the age of three. Charles recalls:
'I would jump in the chair and sit by him and bang on those keys.'
But life was not to be all so easy for Charles. At the age of five, he witnessed his younger brother drowning. Then, within months, he began to lose his sight and a year later he was blind.
To give him the best chance of gaining independence, his mother Retha sent him to a State School for the Blind 160 miles away. Here, in addition to his Braille classes, he enrolled in formal piano training. He studied Beethoven and Sibelius and enjoyed classical piano, except for the fact that he was always getting in to trouble with his teacher. He recalls:
'I would be adding stuff to Chopin and she didn't like it. I was just curious as to what would happen if I did this, if I did that…'
Improvisation
Always wanting to improvise and to put his mark on the music, at the age of 18 Charles moved to Seattle where he formed his first band, the McSon Trio.
He was influenced by Nat King Cole and pianist Charles Brown, but he also loved Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. At a time when musicians were expected to play either jazz, folk or blues, Charles refused to be tied down, believing that it was the music that he was interested in, not the style.
Of his unique approach he comments:
'Each song speaks for itself. So if I'm singing Georgia, I try to put myself into the lyrics of that song. And if I'm singing I Can't Stop Loving You, I try to make myself think like the guy talking to the girl.
| 'You put yourself into the voice of the song so that you can feel what the song is dictating.' | |
Segregation
Throughout the 1950s Ray Charles witnessed the growing upheaval of America's black community as the country's policy of racial segregation began to crumble. As the pressure grew for greater political recognition of the black community in the 1960s, Charles became friends with the black Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King and played concerts to raise money for the black cause.
Despite never using his music as a form of protest, in the 1980s, before the end of apartheid, he decided to visit South Africa. Recalling the days of audience segregation, Charles comments:
'It was strange in a way, but if you grow up in the south, in a small town, you don't think that much about segregation as it is a way of life. But as you get older you see what's happening.'
'When I played in the south they used to make black people sit upstairs and the white people sit downstairs. I wouldn't perform as long as the crowd were segregated like that. I got sued, but at least I didn't have to play the concert.'
Foundation
Charles has denied that he makes music other than to pleasure his audiences and once claimed:
'My audiences have spent their hard-earned money to get a few minutes entertainment. Everyone can see I'm black so I guess I don't have to tell anyone about it.'
He has however chosen to support other causes. The Ray Charles Foundation aims to provide implants for children who are born deaf.
Of the work he comments:
'There were deaf kids at school and I learned sign language and all that, so we could talk. So I set up the Foundation and it's so gratifying when you see a kid, who's never heard anything in his life, start saying words. It's really beautiful, it really is.'
Addicted To Music
Music remains however at the forefront of Charles's career and playing live music is as much a part of his work schedule as recording or writing.
After spending five decades at the top of his profession, he continues to tour and spends nine months of the year on the road with his 17-piece orchestra and four backing singers, the Raelettes. The only year that he failed to tour was 1965, when he checked into a hospital to deal with his 17-year heroin addiction.
When he is not touring he is working in his studio in Los Angeles and is clearly driven by his love for music. In an interview with the British press he explained:
'If I don't feel what I'm doing…Then I'd rather forget it.'
As he continues to travel the world, playing as many as 200 sell-out gigs a year, it's obvious that he is still very much in touch with the sound of his soul.
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| Screen Story |
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The story of Ray Charles is due to be made into a Hollywood film.
Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story will chart the performers rise from his humble Georgia origins to worldwide fame. |
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