Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz

 

Genius + Soul = Jazz

1961

Personnel: Ray Charles (vocal, organ); Marshall Royal, Frank Wess, George Dorsey, Earle Warren (alto saxophone); Frank Foster, Billy Mitchell, Budd Johnson, Seldon Powell (tenor saxophone); Charlie Fowlkes, Haywood Henry (baritone saxophone); Philip Guilbeau, Thad Jones, Joe Newman, Clark Terry, Eugene Young, John Frosk, Jimmy Nottingham, Joe Wilder (trumpet); Henry Coker, Urbie Green, Al Grey, Benny Powell, Jimmy Cleveland, Keg Johnson, George Matthews (trombone); Freddy Green, Sam Herman (guitar); Eddy Jones, Joe Benjamin (bass); Sonny Payne, Roy Haynes (drums).

The key to listening to this album is to try and forget that it is Ray Charles. Especially in 2010, we have over 50 years of collective cultural expectations and assumptions about his music, if you can manage to drop those for these recordings you will appreciate this music at a different level. This isn't "Georgia on My Mind" or "I Got a Woman", as great as those tunes are. This is magnificent jazz by incredible musicians, not a novelty recording by a pop star. Count Basie's band, Charles on a Rudy Van Gelder-hacked Hammond B3, and Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns to arrange, this is good stuff.

There is one comparison with "The Great Kai and J.J.", the album I reviewed last week. I made the point that the opening song on the record, "This Could be the Start of Something Big", was played much "too earnestly" and could have used a bit more of a "toungue-in-cheek" attitude. If you want an example of how to play a slightly cheesy tune (this one happens to sound like an old-fashioned roller rink melody, especially on the B3), listen to "Stompin' Room Only". It still made me cringe the first time I heard it, but in the best possible way to cringe. It is cheesy. Sweet lord is it cheesy. But it's great. Charles and the band play the melody lines with what can only be described as sophisticated sarcasm, then come the solos, which are incendiary. They are good solos not just for this tune, or this album, they would be good solos on just about any jazz recording. 

The success has everything to do with the fact that Ralph Burns arranged this piece. Not to denigrate Quincy Jones, the other arranger that worked on the album, but Burns works magic here, managing to bring together Creed Taylor's pop sensibilities as producer with the unique demands of creating music that is not insipid and trite. And trust me, this isn't easy to do with this tune, it is an old-fashioned, corny composition from the 20s that might be brilliant and great in context, but doesn't always match modern musical sensibilities.

I think that some of lack of recognition due to Burns should be fixed by the last track on the record, "Birth of the Blues". The original liner notes describe the song: "This Ralph Burns arrangement generates a good blues feeling and is a fine vehicle for Charles' organ artistry." It seems like Dick Katz (liner notes author) could have been a little more kind and energetic in his assessment. I agree that Charles is great on this tune. But I don't think that Katz appreciated what Burns was able to do with the arrangement. Compare the horns on this version with Sinatra's version - a show tune designed to appeal to the unwashed masses (let's always remember that Sinatra would have been on American Idol had it been around - the man sold out faster...you want a male vocalist worth listening to check out Johnny Hartman). The voicing of the horns actually makes sense here - it is after all, the blues. Most of the versions of this song I have ever heard, turn it into a bombastic exercise in brass pyrotechnics, like Sinatra's. Burns gives it the feel it should have.

(I realize that I am largely ignoring Quincy Jones contributions. I am o.k. with that. He gets too much attention anyway, and being the music snob that I am, I like focusing on the more obscure stuff that isn't overplayed, and discussed, and worshipped. He is a good musician, composer, and arranger, but he will get his due - Jones recorded for impulse! and his stuff will fall under my axe eventually.)

I almost don't feel like it is necessary to review the two tunes with Ray singing - "I've Got News for You" and "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town". So I won't. They are great.

I do have at least one mild criticism of the album. That is "Moanin'", Bobby Timmons tune, originally and most famously done by Art Blakey. I don't know if it is because that is a rather distinct composition with a structure that makes creative interpretations of it difficult, but the version on "Genius" just doesn't have much to it. It is enjoyable to listen to, but there isn't any provocative about it. It occurred to me that it has the same feel of a jazz tune played by a very talented, but relatively inexperience high school jazz band.Those kids can sometimes play their hearts out and be really entertaining. But my problem: this is a Quincy Jones arrangement being played by the Count Basie Orchestra (sans Basie) and Ray Charles; I think we have a right to something more than mere competence especially given the excellent work on the rest of the album.

This is a good record.  It is definitely worth owning if you can find it, but you need to be careful.The Amazon download of the album is "My Kind of Jazz" (an o.k. album by Charles, but not impulse! and not of the same quality) not "Genius". It is worth noting that in April, a compilation of Charles' jazz recordings is being released that includes "Genius". I would point out that his other jazz recordings are not nearly as good as "Genius", so you might want to just find a used copy of the late-90s release of "Genius" that included "My Kind of Jazz" (which Amazon has, but not to download). Unless you are a serious fan of Ray Charles, the new 2-disc set might be overkill. But I can assure that "Genius" is well worth the effort and price.