Ray Charles, great musician, passes on

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http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040610/BREAKING/40610004

Grammy-Winner Ray Charles Dies

The Associated Press

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner credited with creating American soul music with a blend of gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as "What'd I Say" and "I Got A Woman" and heartfelt ballads like "Georgia on My Mind," died Thursday. He was 73.

Charles died at 11:35 a.m., surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney.

Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singers studios an historic landmark.

Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South.

"His sound was stunning - it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing - it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing," singer Van Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine in April 2004.

Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years ("Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Busted").
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I saw him in concert here in little old London, ON last summer. He truly was and is a legendary musician, and he will be sorely missed...

Magui: If you've ever heard "Hit the Road, Jack" or "Georgia On My Mind", or even "We Are the World", then you've heard him. He was in "The Blues Brothers" movie as the owner of the music store. You know, blind guy, sunglasses, plays the piano, but isn't Stevie Wonder...
 
It's a sad loss for the world of pop music. Besides being a great singer/musician in his own right Ray was a tremendous influence on most of today's genres. For example, the two biggest acts I remember citing him as an influence are The Beatles and Stevie Wonder - and how many acts have they influenced...just about everyone, I would say.

...and he was brilliant in the Blues Brothers, KD🙂
 
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