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Ray
Charles was the musician most responsible for developing
soul music. Singers like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson also
did a great deal to pioneer the form, but Charles did even
more to devise a new form of black pop by merging '50s R&B
with gospel-powered vocals, adding plenty of flavor from
contemporary jazz, blues, and (in the '60s) country. Then
there is his singing; his style is among the most emotional
and easily identifiable of any 20th-century performer, up
there with the likes of Elvis and Billie Holiday. He's also
a superb keyboard player, arranger, and bandleader. The
brilliance of his 1950s and 1960s work, however, can't obscure
the fact that he's made few classic tracks since the mid-'60s,
though he's recorded often and tours to this day.
Blind since the age of six (from glaucoma), Charles studied
composition and learned many instruments at the St. Augustine
School for the Deaf and the Blind. His parents had died
by his early teens, and he worked as a musician in Florida
for a while before using his savings to move to Seattle
in 1947. By the late '40s, he was recording in a smooth
pop/R&B style derivative of Nat "King" Cole
and Charles Brown. He got his first Top Ten R&B hit
with "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" in 1951. Charles'
first recordings have come in for their fair share of criticism,
as they are much milder and less original than the classics
that would follow, although they're actually fairly enjoyable,
showing strong hints of the skills that were to flower in
a few years
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