Ray Charles

“The Magnificence of Jazz”

Monica Nathalia Suarez Monroy

2070071
 THE MAGNIFICENCE OF JAZZ

This essay aims to submerge people in the astounding world of Jazz, a world full of
marvelous creations that overflow of inspiration, by doing a short description of
how jazz was born and how it evolved until it became what it was, is and will be. All
this is done for introducing a special character the essay emphasizes on, “the
genius”, “the father of soul” Ray Charles Robinson; describing his childhood, his
personal life, and how he became what he was.

Origins of Jazz

It was April 12th 1861; many changes were happening in America, it was the civil
war. The civil war had to do with political and armed conflicts that lasted around 4
years. On June 23th 1865 the war together with slavery finished and many African
Americans went to the big cities for starting a new lifestyle. Multiculturalism was
new between Americans and the cities were just trying to adapt themselves to
these changes.

During the civil war period a new music style was invented, the Blues. It was
created by African American people who were slaves and who had had very
difficult moments in their lives, so they expressed these feelings in their music and
occasionally the word “blues” meant “sad” in some of their songs. Nowadays this
music style is considered one of the most important contributions African American
people has led in American culture.

After all these events of the civil war and the birth of a multicultural nation, Jazz
appeared in 1880. It was born from Blues style and it was mainly interpreted by
African American people. It was born in New Orleans, one of the richest cities in
different cultures from the entire world. However blues was not the only base for
the creation of Jazz, there was also another important music style known as
“ragtime”. This music style was very popular in New Orleans by 1880 – 1890. The
first Jazz musicians created their music together with a variety of unexpected
rhythms known as “syncopated” and some other catchy pieces of music taken from
ragtime; in fact, the first jazz musicians thought of jazz as a variation of ragtime
style. Something important to highlight here is that “improvisation - the
spontaneous invention of rhythms and melodies that is part of authentic African
music - was a vital element in jazz from the beginning” as mentioned by Sutron
(2006).

The author mentions that it would be impossible to talk about jazz without
mentioning the first jazz musician called Buddy Bolden. He was born a decade
after the civil war, and he began to play his “powerful” cornet when he was 17, he
was very well known; sadly the opportunity of becoming a well known star all over
the world never came truth, as he finished in a mental institution, because of
mental issues.

After Buddy Bolden many other artist like Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, etc.
were born in jazz world, they created the first jazz; however the first jazz record
was made by a band called “The Original Dixieland Jazz Band”, the recordings
were made in New York in 1917.

In the course of the 1920s, many jazz bands came to existence and New York City
became the industrial center of this musical genre, “more than any time on history,
Jazz was a central part of mainstream American entertainment”.

An important factor to consider is that in the same way people and their thoughts
and beliefs evolve, Jazz does. This is due to the fact that the world is constantly
changing and many things come with the evolution. Each generation has its own
styles and they show them through every single thing, so it is also shown through
jazz. That is the reason why it is impossible to talk about jazz having just certain
kind of instruments, rhythms, etc. because it has been modified a lot from its
original style during the decades.

As mentioned by Lopes (2002), Jazz was considered part of the social history of
authentic American music. By the 1940s, the jazz style had greater influence in the
national commercial market. It had reached a countless amount of followers who
enjoyed Jazz played in concerts, restaurants and bars. However people who knew
about Jazz preferred the “popular” Jazz played during the Jazz age, as it had been
modified a bit by the professional singers of those times who introduced some
pieces of their cultures, and even though it was good, there were still original jazz
lovers who were dedicated to maintain jazz as it had been born.

There were few original jazz followers, a new variation of jazz was gaining strength
among American society, and this was known as “Hot Jazz”. It was played in clubs
and bars and people enjoyed dancing it. The older musicians of jazz were
occasionally criticized for not permitting the “new styles” to take part of their songs.
However the older musicians’ songs were the base for the new songs these
modern musicians played.

Just when the Jazz seemed to be not as catchy as it was before, it appeared the
“swing”, a music style born on Jazz and that was similar to it. It consisted of a more
elegant sound that was rapidly adopted by most Jazz musicians and
bands.Nevertheless, not all Americans accepted this new popular style. The
acceptance of this new genre implied more than just a change in music, deep
inside it showed a transformation of their culture talking about divisions of race and
class, as if they would not care about this anymore. Sadly it was not like that as
there were many people who still made distinctions.

After the swing style, in the late 1940s a radical modernist Jazz style took place in
America, it was known as “bebop”. This music style was developed among young
Jazz professional of that epoch, and it is also a Jazz style. This style was
interpreted even by white musicians who were exposed to the genre after its first
recordings. In this period of time many young artist emerged feeling attracted to
this new way of expression.

Bebop initiators talk about it as a manifestation of revolt. Around ten years before,
many jazz musicians, the younger ones to be specific,thought in a good or bad
way, that white people wanted to keep the old-time jazz. They usually said that the
old-time jazz music, known as ‘Uncle Tom music,’ was an art form of the old-
fashioned generations and they argue that it did not communicate the modern
thoughts of African American people. Bebop emerged as a profound refusal to jazz
critics and also to swing style as it was not considered as a way of jazz for many.

Subsequent to bebop, the “cool jazz” appeared in the 1950s; it was a musical
genre that was far away from improvisation, totally the opposite of the first jazz,
and it had not much to do with bebop rhythm, in fact this style was more similar to
European music that to the original jazz. It became really popular among white
youngsters. Little time later the name was replaced for West Coast jazz as most of
the musicians lived there.

The next one in the chronological line was “hard bop”. It was born from many kinds
of African American music like the gospel and the rhythm-and-blues. The gospel
music is Christian music specially written to express people’s feelings in the
spiritual, personal and social dimension. This style varies from one culture to
another as it is taken in the way religion is viewed in each country.The rhythm-and-
blues is a music style originated from jazz, gospel and blues and it is claimed to be
the father of rock and roll. Musicians of this genre did no pay much attention to the
difference between this style and jazz and they often recorded for both genres
without even noticing it, however the difference in rhythm was really noticeable.
Coming back to hard bop, it was a modified style of bebop music and it was very
similar to the rhythms of the hot jazz. The difference between the hard bop and the
cool jazz was huge, even though they were born almost at the same time.

Leymarie (2003) says that jazz arrived in Latin America in the late 1960s; it was
influenced by soul style that is a style made from a mixture of gospel and rhythm-
and-blues music. It also tells stories about African American’s lives. In Latin
America jazz arose in the “salsa” era and it started growing stronger with the past
of the decades; the first place in Latin America to play jazz was La Habana – Cuba,
then it came Brazil, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Panama
Venezuela, Uruguay and Peru.
Steve Graybow, writer of the billboard magazine, claims that today, music is
stronger as never before, so he says it cannot be compared what jazz is today to
what it was before, he argues that Jazz is a “living changing medium” and it
definitely has evolved a lot since its very beginning. The author of the article
highlights that Jazz has a lot to do with creativity, so in that case it would be
impossible not to change it a bit, not to add anything to it, it can not get stuck
because human minds are made to innovate and create new and better things, so
in the same way Jazz needs to be improved. However, it does not mean that the
modern authors do not value the elder ones; of course they do, because the elder
ones are the ones who gave this new generation the basis to start in Jazz roads.

Nowadays jazz is still very popular as there are people who enjoys good music. On
a blog called The Online Photographer many jazz followers talk about the
popularity of jazz today and they started mentioning the well known jazz festivals,
they talked about the “Annual Chicago Jazz Festival”, and one of the largest jazz
festivals all over the world “the Montreal Jazz Festival” with approximately 2.5
millions attendants. The fans also mention that there is a radio station called the
KTRU 91.7 FM “with all on jazz format”. In the blog people from all over the world
comment how strong is jazz in their own countries and they say that even though is
not as strong as it was before, it will always have audience.

Nevertheless, as mentioned before, the focus of this essay is on one special and
important character, a jazz legend who had to lead with many troubles in his life
since he was very young, a person known as “the genius” because of the amazing
power of his songs, the unforgettable “Ray Charles Robinson”.

First of all it is important to mention some important factors that made Ray Charles
who he was. According to Oceano Encyclopedia the First World War that finished
in 1918 left many sequels which were noticeable since the very beginning. Eleven
years later, in 1929 the most devastating effects of postwar appeared, it was the
beginning of the great depression. The great depression was an abysmal
economical crisis that lasted over a decade some time before the Second World
War started. It was one of the biggest economic depressions and that affected
most countries in the XX century. It was originated in the USA after the fall in stock
prices known as “black Tuesday”, it had terrible effects in almost every country as
all the prices and taxes rose and together with a big percentage of unemployment.
Many countries could recover after 5 years, but some others experienced its
effects until the Second World War.

Another important factor that marked Ray Charles life was the Second World War.
This war started on September 1st 1939, when Germany started his attack against
Poland, and then took possession of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands and
France. In the United States, after having lost many young people in World War
Two, people were very doubtful about being involved in another big war as it had
been the bloodiest war ever, and most of the people who died were civilians.
Nonetheless, President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree with his people and he
wanted to get involved in the World War Two. As soon as it broke out in 1939
Roosevelt approved an increase in the quantity of soldiers of the American Army.

Roosevelt did want to be part of the Second World War, yet he was incapable of
enter directly to the war and American people were still in favor of neutrality. In
December 1941 the desire of Roosevelt came truth when Japan took charge of it
attacking Pearl Harbor. The day after the attack The United States declared war to
Japan and Germany.

Living in those times was not easy for anyone, the Second World War left as much
devastation as the first one, and people did not even had time to recover from one
when they entered to another. The great depression also caused havoc in the
United States and everyone there experienced consequences in every place, so
these factors also marked an important aspect of Ray Charles’ life.

Another important factor that influenced a lot Ray Charles life was racism. The fact
of being black somehow made Ray Charles what he is. Oceano mentions that
racism has been a problem for a long time. It started with the called “purification of
blood” that was a system of discrimination with its basis on Aristotle thoughts, and
it came to existence in the XIV century. It made a distinction among people who
had “pure blood” and the ones with “mixed blood” so in that way the social status
appeared. This purification of blood was initially created because of the Jews, but
then it expanded to indigenous and black people.

In the United States racism has been a very usual topic to talk about, it has brought
problems since the colonial epoch when black people were slaves. By 1960s
Americans still had lots of privileges and they were given priority in many cases
over other people who were not Native American. However things started to
change after 1960 as the immigrants got more privileges than they had before. It
was then that the xenophobia and segregation became really popular among
Native Americans and it continues to be like that. Life was no easy for Non-native
people and although nowadays there is much more acceptance, there are still
many cases in which it can be seen their minds have not changed in this topic.

Now, to focus a bit more on Ray Charles life it is important to mention some
significant details of it, starting by his childhood. Sloate (2007) says that Ray
Charles Robinson was born in Albany, Georgia on September 23rd, 1930. His
mother was Aretha Williams and his father Bailey Robinson. From a very early age
he had to lead with poverty as he grew up during the great depression time and his
mother used to work in modest jobs like washing clothes and ironing for surviving.
Ray’s mother was 16 when Ray got born, and his father is rarely mentioned in his
biographies as he “was hardly ever around”, and he visited them once in a while as
he used to work in the railroad. Some sources suggest that his father died when
Ray was 10 years old.

Ray Charles also had a brother called George Robinson who sadly died in a
dramatic way when Ray was only 5. Their mother was cooking the lunch in their
house and cleaning a bit, she had asked the children to get into the house but they
stayed outside for a while, they both were playing when George suggested Ray to
swim in the tub her mother used for washing the clothes, suddenly George slide off
into the tub and died drowned; Ray was the only witness of this event and he could
had helped but he thought it was a game, soon after he realized it was not. This
episode marked Ray for all his life and he could never get over this.

In the town there was an old man who knew to play the piano and Ray was really
interested in listening to him. He usually went to the cafe where the man was, to
observe him while playing. After some time going there the old man taught Ray
how to play the piano, and he learnt very well.

Some time later, when ray was 6 years old, he started to loose his sight. It is not
very clear the reason of his blindness but some sources suggest that is was due to
a illness called glaucoma, and others suggest different reasons like an infection.
Whatever the cause was it was not treated as they had no resources to afford the
medication. The only thing her mother could do was to teach him how to be self-
sufficient in a world were blind people were useless. Ray had to learn to develop
his other senses in a greater way, he said that “his ears were his eyes” and he
learnt to walk without being dependent of a guide dog or a stick. His mother had to
be really strong and strict so that Ray could become an autonomous person.

As mentioned before Ray had to lead with racial problems since he was a child. It
was so drastic that Ray and George never wore shoes when they were kids as
black people did not owned shoes. In his early childhood there were clear
distinctions between black and white people as the white folks lived in one side of
the town and the black folks in the other (book).Even in the buses there were
separated places for black and white people and usually the back part was for
them in most of the places they were.

At the age of 7 Ray got completely blind and his mother decided to sent him to
“Saint Augustine's school for the deaf and the blind”, a state-funded school. At the
school he learnt to read brail and he developed in a better way his musical skills
with the piano and other musical instruments like clarinet, sax and trumpet.
However there was still racial discrimination so therewere special places for black
and white students in the school. Ray could only see his mother once a year and
he usually cried as he missed her and this new life style he had to adapt to was too
hard for a little kid.

In 1945, when Ray was only 15 years old, his mother Aretha died, as she had
worked excessively. He was just a teenager and this really affected him; he was
not able even to eat or sleep for a long time so, most of the times, he played the
piano to stop thinking of his mother. Now Ray was alone in the world and he had to
put into practice all he had learnt at home and at school, it was the beginning of the
Ray Charles era.

Locke and Nayland (1994) tell that after leaving school, Ray decided to move to
Jacksonville, Florida, as there were many opportunities for young musicians in
there and he also wanted to escape from the tragic memories of his mother. He
joined some black musicians who used to play in local bars, however he was not
even known. The opportunities a poor blind black teenager had were much
reduced, nevertheless Ray was completely convinced of his abilities and he would
not give up that easily.It is important to mention that racial discrimination was still
stronger, something that did not bring positive expectations.

In 1948 Ray moved to Seattle where he met a young boy called Quincy Jones
whose greater desire in life was to play jazz. Ray helped him a lot as he taught him
how to write and arrange music and this friendship lasted until his death. Quincy
introduced Ray to a woman who was the owner of a bar she gave Ray an
opportunity to start playing in there with the group, it was there where people
started knowing the colossal talent of this man. The woman called Marlene started
a relationship with Ray and he lived in her house. Everything was going apparently
well, however this vanished when a producer came to Ray in the bar to make an
appealing proposal. It was not convenient for Marlene to lose the talented man as
she together with a member of the group called Gossie McGee were earning
substantial quantities of money because of Ray, while he was just earning small
ones. Ray talked to the producer and he paid to him in advanced and finally Ray
left telling them he had found out the truth.
In 1950 Ray arrived to L.A. where he dropped his name to avoid confusion with a
famous boxer called Ray Robinson and he became “Ray Charles”. Ray got a
recording contract with the Mcson trio and his popularity was increasing really fast.
They recorded songs like “All to myself alone” and “Let’s have a ball”. Some time
later they released more singles including “Baby let me hold your hand”, a great
one.

It was in L.A. where Ray started to consume drugs, specifically heroin and he
became a drug addict. Some biographies suggest that Ray’s first encounter with
heroin was at the age of 15. The pressure for the new recordings together with
tours helped him to have a deep fall into drugs. Finally Ray had some problems
with the band and he quit. He was not sure where to go but he knew he was good
enough to find unlimited opportunities.

In 1952 he arrived in Harlem, a neighborhood in Manhattan with African-American

residents mostly. A man called Ahmet Ertegun knew about his talent and looked for
him to sign for Atlantic Records, where he was offered a variety of advantages.
Ray started recording lots of singles and his popularity increased more and more.
Yet it did not last forever and when his style was too common and predictable he
was asked to try something new. His willingness to this proposition helped him to
record his next great single “mess around” in 1953. Ray was encouraged to try
something newer every time; it was then that he broke into a new music style
known as “soul” that is a mixture of gospel and rhythm-and-blues, as it was
mentioned before, and nowadays he is considered “the father of soul”.

At that time Ray met a woman named Della Bea, who was a gospel singer. They
fell in love soon and they got married. Bea, as Ray called her, moved with Ray
where he was and their marriage was going very well but it would not last forever.
Ray continued in tours and his wife usually stayed home. One of those days when
Ray was getting ready for leaving to a concert, his wife found out that he used
drugs and they had a terrible quarrel. Ray was not going to leave it, not even
because of the baby they both were expecting.
After some time Ray decided he wanted a feminine voice in the group and he met
Mary Ann Fisher, who became his lover. In 1956 he looked also for a trio known as
“the cookies” and one of the members of the group called Margie Frendricks was
also interested in Ray. The band recorded some famous singles like “What’d I say”
that reached the first places on the radio. The problems between Mary Ann and
Margie appeared soon, but they finished when Mary Ann quit the band and finally
Margie became another one of his lovers.

Later, Ray moved to L.A. with his wife, his son and their new baby. Ray spent
most of his time together with Margie but she wanted Ray to definitely leave his
family and he always said it will never happen even though he found out Margie
was pregnant. Subsequently Margie left Ray because of his lack of care and his
addiction to drugs.

Ray had spent most of his years playing for Atlantic Records, but as he was “the
genius” and “the father of soul” many people were interested in him. Around 1960
he was offered a new recording contract with the ABC, an important company that
was giving him most of what any other could offer. Finally Ray left Atlantic
Records; his fame spread amazingly, in ABC he produced some singles like
“Georgia on my mind”, “Hit the road Jack” and “Unchain my heart”.

Ray did not pay much attention to the racial issues some black people had to
stand. In 1961, when he was in Georgia going to a concert,a black man among the
multitude was fighting for equality and told Ray he could change things as he was
important. At the beginning he said he could not do anything, but later he
remembered where he came from and who he was and decided to make a
difference and not allowing racial discrimination in his concerts. After that Ray was
banned for life in Georgia and he did not play there never again.

Ray continued to live as he was and he did not want too see what was happening;
his addiction for drugs went too far. Then the consequencesof his actions came up
in 1965 when he was arrested for drugs consuming and the news occupied most of
the covers of newspapers. Nonetheless he was released soon when the manager
of ABC made some arrangements.At home Ray and his wife Bea were constantly
quarreling, Bea used to tell him that other kids were teasing their children at school
because of what had happened, but he did not change his mind.

With the ABC Ray travelled a lot in many tours all over the world. He went to
Rome, Russia, Tokyo, France, etc. Now he was a well known artist all over the
world and he would be unforgettable. At that time Ray also got a new agent called
Joe and he did not realize that he threw his old friends as trash. He did not care
about Margie and about his old agent Jeff. Ray was not a bad person but his fame
sometimes led him to make wrong decisions. Finally Ray received a phone called
being informed that Margie had died because of an overdose, but Margie’s son
was fine and he stayed with Margie’s sister.

On June 10th, 2004 the legendary Ray Charles finally died at the age of 73 in
Beverly Hills, California. After all his controversial and amazing life, after his poor
childhood, his tragic experiences, his addiction to drugs, his family and lovers and
his calmly steps that led him to fame, finally the only things remaining now, and
that will always keep him alive in our minds, are his voice and inspiration shown
through all his marvelous art work transformed in songs.
REFERENCES

1. Sutro, Dirk. 2006. “Jazz for Dummies”. Wiley Publishing Inc.

2. Lopes, Paul. 2002. “The Rise of a Jazz Art World”. Cambridge U.P.
3. Leymarie, Isabelle. 2003. “Jazz Latino”. Ma Non Troppo, Robinbook.
4. Oceano Encyclopedia. ?????????????????????????
5.