The year before, in Newport Ray Charles furios had drawn attention to itself, with Blues elegant style (but still, clear as that. At the latest since July 5, 1958, proved this gentleman). And now, a few months later, put the same Ray Charles on the other end of the scale going: Start doing it the way you Ray Charles for decades knew and will know even longer: "Let the Good Times Roll" has been everything Ray a -Charles song needs. It even has to offer even more, much more. Direct the first bars are deserted tip: timeless dahinbretternd, the band holds back, remains band, not exaggerating. And the soloist, the middle suddenly gets going ... Haargenau so must sound a song if it is to be timeless. And "Let the Good Times Roll" became a timeless classic. "The Genius of Ray Charles" begins with Ray Charles' now classic style and ends with seemingly (or actually - what the heck) conventional big band jazz. That sounds like "durcheinandergewurschtelt wild", but thought out and comes so to the listener. The big band sound creeps gradually, sometimes straightforward and precise ("It Had to Be You"), sometimes up to the pain threshold corny ("Just for a Thrill"). Always clever, always accurate, never runtergerieselt. It's those details that distinguish the unique album from the crowd. Times are's this wind solos, clever, but not slimy, but so rough, how's big band with harmonious precisely still be reconciled. Times are's these small, seemingly totally independent of time and space Piano Finger gimmicks (Three guesses, whose as play and who of "You Will not Let Me Go" "Oh yeah," breathed the end finger, the one to those makes you forget time obeying exaggerated musical sugar consumption), and prevents whose voice that the songs sand in a typical time Tralala. When Ray Charles sings, then one suspects even in seemingly harmless figure still the musical double bottom. And what he made of "Am I Blue" makes here - surprisingly, adapted to the style of the album and thanks to the singer vocal power but timeless ... The right and the subsequent "Come Rain or Come Shine", also "Let the Good Times Roll "," It Had to Be You "and the quietschfidele" Alexander's Ragtime Band "I think the best songs of this album. The dramatic "Come Rain or Come Shine" is considered my special affection - in spite of getting used to the background choir, the happy, especially the second half of the album.
The album "The Genius of Ray Charles' 1959 has become very beautiful in its own way, the sound is crystal clear. Ray Charles was at that time already in excellent shape; In any case my hearing is of this opinion. Nevertheless, the CD is not in the allervordersten series at least for me. Against the genre I've got nothing. But in too many songs, especially on the second half of the album, he makes music too much tribute to a musical trend of his time, which is almost unintentionally funny today in concentrated form (luckily only almost, thanks to Ray Charles). Especially this background choir ... the ladies match the strings squadrons that would here also had nothing to look for, but what else they have lost here? Maybe it is not because of Ray Charles and / or his band, but at the / producers who took too much consideration to the supposed tastes.
Anyway ... Thanks to the skill of the band, but above all thanks to the genius Ray Charles, the level drops not even to mediocrity. Here also the überproduzierteste song has a certain something, and this is where this album is different from all the ephemera that time. But unfortunately is now times a little too often been applied too thick in the studio, although again this ingenious moments light up like musical supernovae in every song. In Ray Charles's universe is now even many others, brighter stars whose luminosity is immune to fads. Perhaps a fan of something specific musical genres judged it differently and awarded five stars - understandable, I would find the other hand, I forgive four stars because the zuckersüßeste Bigband under Ray Charles' directing plays peppered music.. And that's what I like.
