FAREWELL RAY CHARLES

Mood (You may need an Ogg Vorbis plug-in to play this; I strongly suggest it).

From the Houston Chronicle:

James Brown may be "the Godfather of Soul" and Aretha Franklin its queen, but Charles was a co-founder of the R&B-and-gospel mix that topped the charts in the '60s and '70s. He, along with singers such as Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson, combined 1950s R&B with the musicianship of big jazz bands and the spiritual lift of hymns to create a new form of popular music.

Maybe it's enough to remember Charles, a man who could convey emotion like a preacher from behind his dark Ray-Ban glasses, by the nickname bestowed on him during his early years of recording: "The Genius."

Click here for the rest.

What can I say about Ray Charles that hasn't been said a billion times? Indeed, he was a genius. I've been hearing his music for as long as I can remember, part of the soundtrack of my life, as they say. His death is one big drag.

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