Ray Charles At Newport 1960

Many musicians possess elements of genius, but it was the great Ray Charles who so fully embodied the term that it was bestowed upon him as a nickname. Blind since the age of six (from glaucoma), Ray Charles (Albany, Georgia, September 23, 1930 - Beverly Hills, California, June 10, 2004) combined elements of gospel, R&B and blues into a fervid, exuberant style that would come to be known as soul music.

This edition contains, for the first time on vinyl, Ray Charles' splendid 1960 live set at the Newport Jazz Festival, which was taped two years after his first appearance there (the 1958 concert issued on the Atlantic LP Ray Charles at Newport). By the time this 1960 performance took place, Charles had already left the Atlantic label, so the concert didn t originally make it onto an LP. The eclectic repertoire includes Neal Hefti's ''Lil' Darlin''', made famous by Count Basie on his classic 1958 Atomic Mr. Basie album. The studio versions of both ''Let the Good Times Roll'' and ''Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying'' were included on the 1959 album The Genius of Ray Charles, and bear arrangements by Quincy Jones, which were played by a big band on the record and adapted to an eight-piece band for the concert. Ray Charles' set at Newport '60 would be followed by the Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. Ray Brown remembered years later: ''When Ray was through with his set, we turned to each other and asked just one question, 'Who wants to follow that?'''