Ray Charles biography

Synopsis

Summary

Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. Blind by the age of seven, he learned to play piano at a state-sponsored school for the deaf and blind in Florida. His first hit, “Mess Around,” came out in 1953. He spent his career blending gospel, pop, country, R&B and jazz into a singular sound: soul. He was addicted to heroin for 20 years and died of lung cancer in 2004.

Early Life

Ray Charles Robinson was born September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. His father, a mechanic, and his mother, a sharecropper, moved the family to Florida when he was an infant. One of the most traumatic events of his childhood was witnessing the drowning death of his younger brother.

It was soon after his brother’s death that he gradually began to lose his sight. By the age of seven, he was fully blind. His mother sent him to the state-supported school for the blind and deaf in St. Augustine. It was there that he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille. He also learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. The breadth of his musical interests ranged widely, from gospel to country to blues.

Musical Evolution

Charles’ mother died when he was 15, and for a year he toured on the “Chitlin’ Crcuit” in the South. While on the road, he picked up a love for heroin.

At the of age 16, he moved to Seattle, winding up in the city’s red-light district, where he met a young Quincy Jones, a friend and collaborator he would keep for the rest of his life. Within six years, he was signed by Atlantic Records. In 1953, he celebrated his first hit single, “Mess Around.”

Critical Acclaim

A year later, his now classic record “I Got a Woman” reached number one on the R&B charts. His early work was clearly influenced by Nat King Cole, but soon his work was singularly unique, helping create a new musical genre: soul. By the late 1950s, he began entertaining the world of jazz, cutting records with members of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Fellow musicians began to call him “The Genius,” an appropriate title for this ramblin’ musician who never worked in just one style, but blended and beautified all that he touched. Charles’ biggest success was perhaps his ability to “cross over” into pop music too, reaching number six on the Pop chart and number one on the R&B chart with his hit “What’d I Say.”

The year 1960 brought Charles his first Grammy Award for “Georgia on My Mind,” followed by another Grammy for the single “Hit the Road, Jack.” For his day, he maintained a rare level of creative control over his own music. Sadly, however, he continued to struggle with heroin addiction. In 1965, he was arrested for possession.

Personal Struggles and Death

Charles avoided jail after his arrest for possession by finally kicking the habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. His releases in the 1960s and 1970s were hit-or-miss, but several appearances brought him back into the limelight, notably his Pepsi-Cola commercial in the early 1990s (“You Got the Right One, Baby!”) and his recording of “We Are the World” for USA for Africa.

Charles was married twice and fathered 12 children with nine different women. He died on June 10, 2004 of lung cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California. His final album, Genius Loves Company, which was released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries.

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