Early Years [King]

Performer: Ray Charles
Distributor: Select-O-Hits

Notes: In the late 1940s, teenager Ray Charles founded the Maxim Trio, heavily influenced by the style and instrumentation of the Nat King Cole Trio. Cole was the first popular jazz musician to skip drums in a trio and operate instead with piano, guitar and bass. Charles and the band, along with Charles Brown and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, were successful within the style. THE EARLY YEARS, initially re-released in the 1970s and now digitially remastered, shows Charles in the formative stages of his career. While Charles would later be identified as a hard-driving piano man, most of the tunes on THE EARLY YEARS are slow movers like "Ray Charles Blues" and "St. Pete Florida Blues." THE EARLY YEARS may not show Charles at the height of his genius, but devoted fans, as well as fans of Nat King Cole, will enjoy this collection of early work.

There are few musicians in modern pop music who can truly be called "genius," but in the case of Ray Charles, the term applies. His innovative singing, drawing on both gospel and pop, has inspired legions of great singers. With a long, prolific recording career that began in 1949, Charles became perhaps the finest interpreter of pop music in the postwar years. A gifted pianist, songwriter, and vocalist, he was a master of every style he attempted, be it R&B, country, blues, or soul. The man who wrote such indelible R&B classics as "I Got a Woman" and "What'd I Say" passed away in 2004, a legend several times over. The same year, a remarkable performance by Jamie Foxx in the biopic RAY served as a fitting cinematic eulogy.

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