Ray Charles

Ray Charles: musical genius Ray Charles is considered a musical genius in many different fields. He has a large success in pop, jazz, blues, country, gospel and western. Acknowledged as an all around-entertainer, from being an expert pianist vocalist and saxophonist. Charles started receiving popular attention in around the 1950's as the inventor of soul music. He once defined soul music,"soul music is when you are able to convey the meaning of a song and make people feel it, make them think, Oh, Ray, you must had the experience because there's no way you could have sung that song unless it happened to you."(Jet Magazine)

Ray Charles Robinson was born in Albany, Georgia, on September 23, 1930. His father, Bailey Robinson, was a mechanic and a handyman, and his mother Aretha, stacked boards in a sawmill. When Charles was and infant his parents moved to Greenville, Florida. While they were in Greenville a neighbor started to give Charles piano lessons after he taught himself at around the age of three. Their neighbor own a little store not far from where they lived, Charles not only took piano lessons in the juke joint, he ab sorbed the blues, jazz, and the gospel music in the juke joint "bar". At the age of five, Charles saw his younger brother drown in the tub his mother used to do laundry, while his family went through a very difficult time during the Great Depression. About two years later Charles lost his sight to glaucoma . He once stated that his mother never allowed him to pity himself. In an interview with Jet Magazine, his mother told him: "Ok, you're blind. Now that just means there are at least two ways to do everything. You just have to find the second way... Whatever happens to you is up to you..." His mother also told him: "You're blind, you ain't dumb. You lost your sight, not your mind." For nine years he attended St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, studying composition and number of instruments.

When he left the school he worked in a number of places with many different groups in Florida area. (Salamone)"Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory,"Charles said. "I can sit at me desk and write a whole arrangement in my head and never touch a piano.... There's no reason for it to come out any different that the way it sounds in my head.