Ray

by

Ray Charles

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Man, how Ray Charles could belt out a tune! He made it seem so easy; and the proof of that is on this CD. "Georgia On My Mind" is one of my favorite Ray Charles songs; this studio cut of Ray singing this is magnificent and very moving. No wonder it's Georgia's state song!

This CD starts out with the mischievous "Mess Around;" this song is so much fun you may replay it a few times before you even get to the rest of the CD! Hehehe! "I've Got A Woman" continues in this same way. There are some terrific live recordings here, too! Ray sings "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "What'd I Say," "You Don't Know Me," "Let The Good Times Roll," and "Georgia On My Mind" all live! I only wish I had been at one of these concerts; the electricity that so clearly is there in his performance would have blown my mind!

I especially liked the somewhat different arrangements on "You Don't Know Me" and "Let The Good Times Roll!" Very well done! The live recording of "Georgia On My Mind" is indeed very bluesy; a nice twist to a great song that is also here from a studio recording session Ray did.

Ray had a hand in the production of this film before he died; therefore this CD is also an excellent introduction or perhaps a single CD miniature compilation of some of his most famous songs. This is also a wonderful way for us all to remember the great Mr. Charles; since his performances here are dynamic, exciting, fresh and straight from the heart.

The CD comes with liner notes by Taylor Hackford. Hackford both directed and co-wrote the film "Ray."

In short, GET THIS CD! and help celebrate the life and art of the great Mr. Ray Charles! You won't regret this CD purchase! And while you're at it, why not see the movie, too? GRIN

The Ray Soundtrack was a disappointment in that the sound is not even close to the quality of the music on the DVD. Now to be sure, it is the same music. Allow me to explain; in the movie, each song has a dramatic "jump" to it that is absent in the soundtrack. It's like the editors pulled the original records, re-mastered them and laid the tracks down on this CD in the exact order as they appeared in the film. So what you get is Ray, but it is does not have the soul of the same music as in the movie. I'm not sure I can explain it correctly but it's as if the movie and Jamie Foxx stylized the same songs to have that "oomph" that's missing from this re-mastered collection of original tunes. To test my theory, I made a dub of "What'd I Say" from the DVD and played it back-to-back with this CD's version of the same song. The difference is unbelievable.

My conclusion; I love Ray Charles and his music but after hearing his music from the DVD in full Dolby 5.1, this CD is very disappointing. Put simply, it's like me taking my collection of Ray Charles Hi-Fidelity recordings and doing a straight transfer to CD. The music would be there but it would in no way sound like a modern day state of the art produced CD. And that's my problem; if the producers could make the film sound so good, they should have used the same music for the Soundtrack and used this collection of recordings labeled "The Originally Recorded Music" that inspired the movie Ray. That's my take for what it's worth.

Mike Way