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RAY CHARLES ha muerto a los 73 años
- Iniciador del tema GLOVED_ONE
- Fecha de inicio
Acabo de enterarme la noticia y me he quedado de piedra. Su carrera esta llena de temazos que me ponen la piel de gallina. Hit the road Jack, What I said, y por supuesto Georgia, Georgia on my mind..... uff sencillamente bestial.
En cuanto llegue a casa creo que me voy a dar un atracon de su musica.
Ray Charles Forever!!!!! :ily:
En cuanto llegue a casa creo que me voy a dar un atracon de su musica.
Ray Charles Forever!!!!! :ily:
mjdavid007
Old Skool Hideouter
su solo en we are the world es de lo mas impresionante k he escuchado nunca en serio.... weno k pena....descanse en paz
Mistery
2
Siiiiiii...una terrible pérdida para el mundo musical.Aunque su legado quedará por siempre 
Sin duda alguna fue un gran genio...
Descanse en paz.
Por cierto,estaba buscando un tema suyo y que no me acuerdo del título.
Sólo me acuerdo que es un tema movidito y en cuyo videoclip sale Ray Charles sentado (sobre una acera o algo asi)...y está haciendo palmas y moviendo un poco las piernas.
Me parece que lleva un traje blanco.
Y si no me equivoco en ese tema también sale (o colabora) el gran Quincy Jones
¿A alguien le suena?
Sin duda alguna fue un gran genio...
Descanse en paz.
Por cierto,estaba buscando un tema suyo y que no me acuerdo del título.
Sólo me acuerdo que es un tema movidito y en cuyo videoclip sale Ray Charles sentado (sobre una acera o algo asi)...y está haciendo palmas y moviendo un poco las piernas.
Me parece que lleva un traje blanco.
Y si no me equivoco en ese tema también sale (o colabora) el gran Quincy Jones
¿A alguien le suena?
Que GRAN, GRAN ARTISTA...:llorando:
Esa parte final de We are the World fue colosal, un final esplendido, y bueno que decir de Georgia on my mind, un clásico...
Me ha dejado muy triste, era muy amigo de Michael y se querian mucho, espero que alla donde esté, les esté regalando a los ángeles todo su arte y carisma.
Descansa en Paz Ray, God Bless you in Heaven.
Esa parte final de We are the World fue colosal, un final esplendido, y bueno que decir de Georgia on my mind, un clásico...
Me ha dejado muy triste, era muy amigo de Michael y se querian mucho, espero que alla donde esté, les esté regalando a los ángeles todo su arte y carisma.
Descansa en Paz Ray, God Bless you in Heaven.
Siento mucho su perdida
Descanse en paz :rosa:
Descanse en paz :rosa:
Mystery Man dijo:
"Por cierto,estaba buscando un tema suyo y que no me acuerdo del título.
Sólo me acuerdo que es un tema movidito y en cuyo videoclip sale Ray Charles sentado (sobre una acera o algo asi)...y está haciendo palmas y moviendo un poco las piernas.
Me parece que lleva un traje blanco.
Y si no me equivoco en ese tema también sale (o colabora) el gran Quincy Jones "
Creo que te estas refiriendo a "I'll be good to you", un tema que canto con Chaka Khan en un disco de Quincy Jones del que ahora mismo no recuerdo el nombre, creo que alla por el año 89 o comienzos de los 90.
Por cierto, que la original de esta canción es de Brothers Johnson, donde estaba Louis Johnson. ¿Que quién es es Louis Johnson? Echarle un vistazo a los músicos que tocaron en Off The Wall y Thriller, principalmente, y fijaros en quien tocaba el bajo electrico en muchas canciones. Y despues escuchar la linea de bajo de Get On The Floor.....o tratar de localizar el bajo del bueno de Louis durante PYT (la mayoria de la linea de bajo de este tema esta tocado con un sintetizador, excepto una pequeña parte donde toca Louis Johnson ). O simplemente escuchar la linea de bajo de Billie Jean......¿quien creeis que la tocaba ?
Y si os interesa bajaros "Strawberry Letter 23" , "Get The Funk Outta My Face" o " We Supply", por ejemplo.....
Bueno, he pasado de Ray Charles a Louis Johnson en un santiamén
"Por cierto,estaba buscando un tema suyo y que no me acuerdo del título.
Sólo me acuerdo que es un tema movidito y en cuyo videoclip sale Ray Charles sentado (sobre una acera o algo asi)...y está haciendo palmas y moviendo un poco las piernas.
Me parece que lleva un traje blanco.
Y si no me equivoco en ese tema también sale (o colabora) el gran Quincy Jones
"Creo que te estas refiriendo a "I'll be good to you", un tema que canto con Chaka Khan en un disco de Quincy Jones del que ahora mismo no recuerdo el nombre, creo que alla por el año 89 o comienzos de los 90.
Por cierto, que la original de esta canción es de Brothers Johnson, donde estaba Louis Johnson. ¿Que quién es es Louis Johnson? Echarle un vistazo a los músicos que tocaron en Off The Wall y Thriller, principalmente, y fijaros en quien tocaba el bajo electrico en muchas canciones. Y despues escuchar la linea de bajo de Get On The Floor.....o tratar de localizar el bajo del bueno de Louis durante PYT
(la mayoria de la linea de bajo de este tema esta tocado con un sintetizador, excepto una pequeña parte donde toca Louis Johnson ). O simplemente escuchar la linea de bajo de Billie Jean......¿quien creeis que la tocaba ?Y si os interesa bajaros "Strawberry Letter 23" , "Get The Funk Outta My Face" o " We Supply", por ejemplo.....
Bueno, he pasado de Ray Charles a Louis Johnson en un santiamén
LOS ÁNGELES (EEUU).- El legendario músico Ray Charles murió el 10 de junio a los 73 años en su casa de Beverly Hills a causa de complicaciones en la enfermedad de hígado que sufría. Ciego desde los siete años y huérfano desde los 15, Charles se pasó la vida rompiendo barreras y mezclando estilos.
Nació bajo el nombre de Ray Charles Robinson en Albany, en el sureño estado de Georgia, el 30 de septiembre de 1930. Después de que una enfermedad sanguínea lo dejara ciego a los siete años de edad, Charles asistió a la escuela para ciegos y sordos de Florida, donde desarrolló su gran talento para la música. Más tarde, se trasladó a la ciudad norteña de Seattle, donde realizó su primera presentación como solista, inspirándose en la leyenda de la música Nat 'King' Cole.
Ray Charles destacó sobre todo como autor e intérprete de 'gospel' y 'blues', combinados con algunas dosis de rock, y su canción más conocida es, posiblemente, 'Georgia on My Mind', un homenaje al estado en el que nació en 1930.
Charles, un gran pianista, logró un total de 12 premios Grammy, nueve de ellos entre 1960 y 1966. Entre sus grandes éxitos destacan también 'What'd I Say', 'This little girl of mine', 'Drown in my own tears' y 'I can't stop loving you'.
Estudió composición musical y llegó a dominar el teclado y el saxofón. Para ser músico superó, además del obstáculo de ser invidente, el haber quedado huérfano a los 15 años y haberse criado en el sur de EEUU, todavía dividido por la segregación racial.
Su primera grabación llegó en 1951, y durante esa década se asentó poco a poco como intérprete de "rythm&blues".
Su gran salto a la fama llegó en los años 60, especialmente con 'What'd I Say', tema en el que Charles combinó un teclado eléctrico con aires de "rock"
Los críticos aseguran que Charles fue un maestro en dominar la música tradicional negra ('blues' y 'gospel') y a partir de ahí tratar de romper los moldes y explorar más allá de sus límites, para lo que no dudó en experimentar con el 'country' -un estilo blanco- o el 'rock'.
Además de dominar el piano, era un gran saxofonista. La combinación de la complejidad de sus composiciones con una voz profunda que no ocultaba los problemas de su infancia hacía de sus canciones pequeños monumentos de la música.
'Georgia on My Mind' no fue una composición suya ni él fue el primero en interpretarla, pero Charles elevó el tema a un nivel que ningún otro cantante logró alcanzar.
La canción, un auténtico icono en la música estadounidense, fue nombrada en 1979 canción oficial del estado de Georgia. Charles influyó decisivamente en otros músicos de generaciones posteriores, como Van Morrison o Steve Winwood.
Muere el legendario Ray Charles
AGENCIAS
El cantante tenía 73 años. A D E M Á S ...
NOTICIAS RELACIONADAS
LOS ÁNGELES.- El legendario Ray Charles, una de las figuras más legendarias de la música estadounidense, ha muerto en Los Ángeles a los 73 años, según ha anunciado su manager. Charles murió en su casa de Beverly Hills, rodeado de su familia, a causa de complicaciones en la enfermedad de hígado que padecía.
Charles, que se encontraba muy enfermo, destacó sobre todo como autor e intérprete de 'gospel' y 'blues' Entre sus temas más conocidos destacan 'Georgia in my mind' y 'I can't stop loving you'.
Pese a su delicado estado de salud, seguía trabajando en un disco de duetos con otras figuras como Elton John, Norah Jones and Johnny Mathis.
El pasado mes de agosto se vio obligado a suspender un concierto por primera vez en 53 años de carrera. Un fuerte dolor de cadera le impidió afrontar las 30 actuaciones que le quedaban a su gira. En diciembre, se sometió exitosamente a un trasplante de cadera. Pero al tiempo que los médicos trataban a Charles, le iban diagnosticando otras enfermedades.
El músico, que consiguió 12 premios Grammy, realizó su concierto número 10.000 en el teatro griego de Los Angeles la primavera pasada.
Su última aparición pública fue junto a Clint Eastwood el pasado 30 de abril, cuando la ciudad de Los Ángeles decidió distinguir los estudios del cantante, construidos 40 años atrás en el centro de la ciudad, como lugar histórico. La interpretación que hacía Ray Charles de muchas canciones incluídas en el repertorio de otros artistas las convertía con frecuencia en éxitos suyos por su estilo único, introspectivo y lleno de emoción.
www.elmundo.es
AGENCIAS
LOS ÁNGELES.- El legendario Ray Charles, una de las figuras más legendarias de la música estadounidense, ha muerto en Los Ángeles a los 73 años, según ha anunciado su manager. Charles murió en su casa de Beverly Hills, rodeado de su familia, a causa de complicaciones en la enfermedad de hígado que padecía.
Charles, que se encontraba muy enfermo, destacó sobre todo como autor e intérprete de 'gospel' y 'blues' Entre sus temas más conocidos destacan 'Georgia in my mind' y 'I can't stop loving you'.
Pese a su delicado estado de salud, seguía trabajando en un disco de duetos con otras figuras como Elton John, Norah Jones and Johnny Mathis.
El pasado mes de agosto se vio obligado a suspender un concierto por primera vez en 53 años de carrera. Un fuerte dolor de cadera le impidió afrontar las 30 actuaciones que le quedaban a su gira. En diciembre, se sometió exitosamente a un trasplante de cadera. Pero al tiempo que los médicos trataban a Charles, le iban diagnosticando otras enfermedades.
El músico, que consiguió 12 premios Grammy, realizó su concierto número 10.000 en el teatro griego de Los Angeles la primavera pasada.
Su última aparición pública fue junto a Clint Eastwood el pasado 30 de abril, cuando la ciudad de Los Ángeles decidió distinguir los estudios del cantante, construidos 40 años atrás en el centro de la ciudad, como lugar histórico. La interpretación que hacía Ray Charles de muchas canciones incluídas en el repertorio de otros artistas las convertía con frecuencia en éxitos suyos por su estilo único, introspectivo y lleno de emoción.
www.elmundo.es
Ray Charles Remembered As an Innovator
[size=-1]By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS[/size]
Published: June 11, 2004
Filed at 4:16 p.m. ET
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Ray Charles is being remembered as a musical innovator who blended genres of music to create a new style. Charles died on Thursday of acute liver disease at age 73.
Ray Charles had a string of hits in the early 1960s, including ``I Can't Stop Loving You,'' ``Georgia On My Mind'' and ``Hit The Road Jack.''
``There will never be another musician who did as much to break down the perceived walls of musical genres as much as Ray Charles did,'' said music producer Quincy Jones, who described Charles as a ``brother in every sense of the word.''
Charles died at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition.
One of the first artists to record the ``blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them,'' as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned soul, rock 'n' roll, R&B, country, jazz, big band and blues.
Over the course of a 58-year career, he put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
Aretha Franklin called Charles ``the voice of a lifetime.''
``He was a fabulous man, full of humor and wit,'' she said in a statement. ``A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing.''
James Brown recalled, ``He was just a sweet and gorgeous and wonderful person ... He was a role model for all people that got to know him and his music. I respected the genius ... What set him apart? He was Ray Charles -- just that!''
Billy Joel, a fellow piano man, said he and others started out by imitating Charles. ``Ray Charles was a true American original ... Ray Charles defined rhythm & blues, soul, and authentic rock 'n' roll,'' Joel said Thursday.
Charles' health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. But he kept on working on what would be his last CD, ``Genius Loves Company.''
``There were a couple of times where he would say, 'I'm not feeling well today but I'll take a stab at it ... I can come back to it later.' And he never had to come back to it later,'' said John Burk, who worked with Charles as producer of the upcoming duets album.
The Grammy winner's last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years (``Hit the Road Jack,'' ``I Can't Stop Loving You'' and ``Busted'').
His versions of other songs are also well known, including ``Makin' Whoopee'' and a stirring ``America the Beautiful,'' which he sang for the late President Reagan at his 1985 inaugural ball.
``I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of,'' Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, ``Brother Ray.'' ``Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water.''
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr. a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. He was one of the legends receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, cited as ``one of the most respected singers of his generation ... the pioneer who broke down barriers between secular and sacred styles, between black and white pop.''
Charles was no angel. His womanizing was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that -- he released both ``I Don't Need No Doctor'' and ``Let's Go Get Stoned'' in 1966.
His ups and downs are chronicled in an upcoming biographical movie set for release in October, titled simply ``Ray'' and starring Jamie Foxx.
[size=-1]By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS[/size]
Published: June 11, 2004
Filed at 4:16 p.m. ET
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Ray Charles is being remembered as a musical innovator who blended genres of music to create a new style. Charles died on Thursday of acute liver disease at age 73.
Ray Charles had a string of hits in the early 1960s, including ``I Can't Stop Loving You,'' ``Georgia On My Mind'' and ``Hit The Road Jack.''
``There will never be another musician who did as much to break down the perceived walls of musical genres as much as Ray Charles did,'' said music producer Quincy Jones, who described Charles as a ``brother in every sense of the word.''
Charles died at his Beverly Hills home at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.
Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, the gifted pianist and saxophonist spent his life shattering any notion of musical categories and defying easy definition.
One of the first artists to record the ``blasphemous idea of taking gospel songs and putting the devil's words to them,'' as legendary producer Jerry Wexler once said, Charles' music spanned soul, rock 'n' roll, R&B, country, jazz, big band and blues.
Over the course of a 58-year career, he put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. Smiling and swaying behind the piano, grunts and moans peppering his songs, Charles' appeal spanned generations.
Aretha Franklin called Charles ``the voice of a lifetime.''
``He was a fabulous man, full of humor and wit,'' she said in a statement. ``A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing.''
James Brown recalled, ``He was just a sweet and gorgeous and wonderful person ... He was a role model for all people that got to know him and his music. I respected the genius ... What set him apart? He was Ray Charles -- just that!''
Billy Joel, a fellow piano man, said he and others started out by imitating Charles. ``Ray Charles was a true American original ... Ray Charles defined rhythm & blues, soul, and authentic rock 'n' roll,'' Joel said Thursday.
Charles' health deteriorated rapidly over the past year, after he had hip replacement surgery and was diagnosed with a failing liver. But he kept on working on what would be his last CD, ``Genius Loves Company.''
``There were a couple of times where he would say, 'I'm not feeling well today but I'll take a stab at it ... I can come back to it later.' And he never had to come back to it later,'' said John Burk, who worked with Charles as producer of the upcoming duets album.
The Grammy winner's last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago, as a historic landmark.
Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years (``Hit the Road Jack,'' ``I Can't Stop Loving You'' and ``Busted'').
His versions of other songs are also well known, including ``Makin' Whoopee'' and a stirring ``America the Beautiful,'' which he sang for the late President Reagan at his 1985 inaugural ball.
``I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of,'' Charles said in his 1978 autobiography, ``Brother Ray.'' ``Music was one of my parts ... Like my blood. It was a force already with me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me, like food or water.''
Charles considered Martin Luther King Jr. a friend and once refused to play to segregated audiences in South Africa. He was one of the legends receiving Kennedy Center Honors in 1986, cited as ``one of the most respected singers of his generation ... the pioneer who broke down barriers between secular and sacred styles, between black and white pop.''
Charles was no angel. His womanizing was legendary, and he struggled with a heroin addiction for nearly 20 years before quitting cold turkey in 1965 after an arrest at the Boston airport. Yet there was a sense of humor about even that -- he released both ``I Don't Need No Doctor'' and ``Let's Go Get Stoned'' in 1966.
His ups and downs are chronicled in an upcoming biographical movie set for release in October, titled simply ``Ray'' and starring Jamie Foxx.
Ray Charles, Bluesy Essence of Soul, Is Dead at 73
[size=-1]By JON PARELES and BERNARD WEINRAUB[/size]
Published: June 11, 2004
ay Charles, the piano man with the bluesy voice who reshaped American music for a half-century, bringing the essence of soul to country, jazz, rock, standards and every other style of music he touched, died yesterday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 73.
Mr. Charles underwent successful hip replacement surgery last year and had been scheduled to start a concert tour this month, but developed other ailments and died of complications of liver disease, said his publicity agent, Jerry Digney.
Mr. Charles brought his influence to bear as a performer, songwriter, bandleader and producer. Though blind since childhood, he was a remarkable pianist, at home with splashy barrelhouse playing and precisely understated swing. But his playing was inevitably overshadowed by his voice, a forthright baritone steeped in the blues, strong and impure and gloriously unpredictable.
He could belt like a blues shouter and croon like a pop singer, and he used the flaws and breaks in his voice to illuminate emotional paradoxes. Even in his early years he sounded like a voice of experience, someone who had seen all the hopes and follies of humanity.
Leaping into falsetto, stretching a word and then breaking it off with a laugh or a sob, slipping into an intimate whisper and then letting loose a whoop, Mr. Charles could sound suave or raw, brash or hesitant, joyful or desolate, insouciant or tearful, earthy or devout. He projected the primal exuberance of a field holler and the sophistication of a bebopper; he could conjure exaltation, sorrow and determination within a single phrase.
In the 1950's Mr. Charles became an architect of soul music by bringing the fervor and dynamics of gospel to secular subjects. But he soon broke through any categories. By singing any song he prized — from "Hallelujah I Love Her So" to "I Can't Stop Loving You" to "Georgia on My Mind" to "America the Beautiful" — Mr. Charles claimed all of American music as his birthright. He made more than 60 albums, and his influence echoes through generations of rock and soul singers.
Joe Levy, the music editor of Rolling Stone, said, "The hit records he made for Atlantic in the mid-50's mapped out everything that would happen to rock 'n' roll and soul music in the years that followed."
"Ray Charles is the guy who combined the sacred and the secular, he combined gospel music and the blues," Mr. Levy continued, adding, "He's called a genius because no one could confine him to one genre. He wasn't just rhythm and blues. He was jazz as well. In the early 60's he turned himself into a country performer. Except for B. B. King, there's no other figure who's been as important or has endured so long."
In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, after being sidelined by surgery for months, Mr. Charles reflected on his career and seemed eager to be in front of an audience again.
"Yes, I'm going to keep touring, keep performing, it's in my blood," he said in a recording studio in Los Angeles. "I'm like Count Basie or Duke Ellington. Until the good Lord calls my number, that's what I'm going to do." Several weeks after that interview he canceled a March 2 appearance at Alice Tully Hall in Manhattan because of postsurgery discomfort.
"I ain't going to live forever," he said during the recording studio interview. "I got enough sense to know that. I also know it's not a question of how long I live, but it's a question of how well I live."
He had recently recorded an album of duets with such performers as Norah Jones, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Michael McDonald and James Taylor that was planned for an August release. A movie, tentatively titled "Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story," starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Taylor Hackford, has been completed, but its producers say they are uncertain if it will be released this year or next.
Mr. Charles influenced singers as varied as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison and Billy Joel. But he started out being influenced by a very different singer, Nat King Cole.
[size=-1]By JON PARELES and BERNARD WEINRAUB[/size]
Published: June 11, 2004
Mr. Charles underwent successful hip replacement surgery last year and had been scheduled to start a concert tour this month, but developed other ailments and died of complications of liver disease, said his publicity agent, Jerry Digney.
Mr. Charles brought his influence to bear as a performer, songwriter, bandleader and producer. Though blind since childhood, he was a remarkable pianist, at home with splashy barrelhouse playing and precisely understated swing. But his playing was inevitably overshadowed by his voice, a forthright baritone steeped in the blues, strong and impure and gloriously unpredictable.
He could belt like a blues shouter and croon like a pop singer, and he used the flaws and breaks in his voice to illuminate emotional paradoxes. Even in his early years he sounded like a voice of experience, someone who had seen all the hopes and follies of humanity.
Leaping into falsetto, stretching a word and then breaking it off with a laugh or a sob, slipping into an intimate whisper and then letting loose a whoop, Mr. Charles could sound suave or raw, brash or hesitant, joyful or desolate, insouciant or tearful, earthy or devout. He projected the primal exuberance of a field holler and the sophistication of a bebopper; he could conjure exaltation, sorrow and determination within a single phrase.
In the 1950's Mr. Charles became an architect of soul music by bringing the fervor and dynamics of gospel to secular subjects. But he soon broke through any categories. By singing any song he prized — from "Hallelujah I Love Her So" to "I Can't Stop Loving You" to "Georgia on My Mind" to "America the Beautiful" — Mr. Charles claimed all of American music as his birthright. He made more than 60 albums, and his influence echoes through generations of rock and soul singers.
Joe Levy, the music editor of Rolling Stone, said, "The hit records he made for Atlantic in the mid-50's mapped out everything that would happen to rock 'n' roll and soul music in the years that followed."
"Ray Charles is the guy who combined the sacred and the secular, he combined gospel music and the blues," Mr. Levy continued, adding, "He's called a genius because no one could confine him to one genre. He wasn't just rhythm and blues. He was jazz as well. In the early 60's he turned himself into a country performer. Except for B. B. King, there's no other figure who's been as important or has endured so long."
In an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, after being sidelined by surgery for months, Mr. Charles reflected on his career and seemed eager to be in front of an audience again.
"Yes, I'm going to keep touring, keep performing, it's in my blood," he said in a recording studio in Los Angeles. "I'm like Count Basie or Duke Ellington. Until the good Lord calls my number, that's what I'm going to do." Several weeks after that interview he canceled a March 2 appearance at Alice Tully Hall in Manhattan because of postsurgery discomfort.
"I ain't going to live forever," he said during the recording studio interview. "I got enough sense to know that. I also know it's not a question of how long I live, but it's a question of how well I live."
He had recently recorded an album of duets with such performers as Norah Jones, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Michael McDonald and James Taylor that was planned for an August release. A movie, tentatively titled "Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Story," starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Taylor Hackford, has been completed, but its producers say they are uncertain if it will be released this year or next.
Mr. Charles influenced singers as varied as Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison and Billy Joel. But he started out being influenced by a very different singer, Nat King Cole.
se ha ido uno de los grandes,......es una pena............