Ray Charles by Cabu

An anthology 1949-1961

The American media pompously nicknamed him '' the genius ''. Ray Charles Robinson , blind since the age of six, singer, pianist, songwriter and arranger, probably didn't ask for so much... A place in the sun of success alongside his brothers who, like him at the beginning of the fifties, contributed to elevating the nascent '' Rhythm'n Blues '' to the rank of authentic popular art would probably have been enough for him, but there you go... our man had something more than the others, a secret tip unsuspected: the Gospel , of which he had the audacity and the "genius" to transpose onto secular scenes, the accents, inflections, ecstasies and trances hitherto confined to places of worship.

Beyond the heartbreaking gospelized blues that dot this selection, we should be careful not to overshadow the virtues of pianist Ray Charles , who gives the full measure of his talent as a swingman on a few particularly invigorating instrumental sides in CD2 .