Contributions Of Ray Charles

Ray Charles was born on Sept. 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia, and grew up in Greenville, Florida. At the young age of five, he began losing his sight, and became completely blind by the time he was seven. However, this did not hinder Ray Charles at all, as he continued to persevere in developing his musical talents. One of the most unique aspects of Ray Charles was his unparalleled ability to crossover different genres of music. He mixed together genres such as blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, pop, and even country. With this integration, he created smash hits such as “I Got a Woman,” “Hit the Road Jack,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” When a listener listens close enough to one of Charles’ songs, aspects of the various styles he incorporated can be heard not only through the way the lyrics are

James had a bad early life. He was born March 10, 1928. He was born in Alton Illinois. His mother is Lucille Ray, and his father is George Ellis Ray. He had Welsh, Scots, and Irish in him. He was also Catholic. Ray dropped out of school at 15. After he dropped out he joined the military.

The main artist to capitalize on combining country with blues and jazz was the king of rock and roll, better known as Elvis Presley. He had the country twang along with the bluesy deep message and jazz type feel, which started the music we all know today as rock and roll.

Our music industry would not be what it is today without one of America’s greatest music legends, Duke Ellington. He made major breakthroughs at a time when the odds were against him. He was born Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (1899-1974) (Tirro 1993). He was a natural and has many life achievements that have contributed to the genre of jazz. He was a catalyst in his era. His music spoke to the soul. He defied the odds with his musical accomplishments. It was not everyday blacks were awarded the opportunity to shine in America’s spot light.

The eldest of George and Lucille Ray’s nine children was born on March 10, 1928 in Alton, Illinois (“James Earl Ray”) (“James Earl Ray Biography”). During Ray’s early childhood, the family moved several times (“James Earl Ray Biography”). In 1935, the family suddenly left and moved to Ewing, Missouri after police started looking for the father for a forgery charge (“James Earl Ray

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans he was the son of a prostitute and an absent father. Louis Armstrong grew up with his grandparents because his parents had separated and left him. His mother finally came back, but then left once more. Louis Armstrong grew up around music. He influenced jazz with his great voice and his great trumpet playing. On

The person I chose to do my project on is Louis Armstrong. I chose Louis Armstrong because I wanted to do my project on a singer as well as a musician. I chose him because he was one of the few people that I knew about, also because I did some research on him and listened to his music and I thought that he was interesting to write about. My main three things that I’m going to discuss about Louis Armstrong will be his life, his music and influence on others. I’m going to describe how and where Louis Armstrong’s grew up and how he started out his career as a trumpeter. I’m also going to write about how he went through life and how that affected him in the future. Lastly, I’m going to discuss with you how he had an influence on others. I’m going to explain how he impacted the world with his music and how that affected so many people to this day. Louis Armstrong made a great impact in the world and I’m going to teach you all about it.

Louis Armstrong's diversity and adaptability is widely recognized as one of the most influential aspect in jazz music. Louis Armstrong's musical influence is still the fundamental base for modern jazz today. "Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about.” — Wynton Marsalis perfectly sums up his contributions. His diversity sets him apart from other jazz artists because he managed to stay relevant throughout different musical eras like, the ENOJ era, The Swing Era, Blues etc., until the end of his career. The accomplishments he has achieved throughout his life and the hardships he has gone through has shaped his persona, contributing to how he will become as an artist. His instrumental style, singing, career throughout musical eras, accomplishments, and etc., contribute to how adaptable and diverse he is.

Mallie and Jerry Robinson, Jackie’s parents, gave life to Jackie Robinson on January 31, 1919. He was born in Cairo, Georgia, and was raised in Pasadena, California. Jackie was on of the best athletes in his state. Jackie was not just an amazing baseball player but he was also good

Ray Lewis lived with his parents Elbert Ray Jackson and Sunseria Keith Ray Lewis also lived with 5 siblings Ray Lewis was the oldest out of all of them. Ray Lewis has 3 sisters and 1 brother his brother’s name was Keon Lattimore, Lakeisha Jenkins, Laquesha Jenkins, Kadja Holloway, and Raymond Anthony Lewis. Ray Lewis’s childhood was not stable because his dad was absent during his childhood. I couldn’t find the rest of his childhood.

Many people knew Louis Armstrong as the “first real genius of jazz”(Shipton 26). He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 4, 1901. Louis was the illegitimate son of William Armstrong and Mary Est “Mayann” Albert. He was abandoned by his father, a boiler stoker, shortly after his birth and was raised by his paternal grandmother. Then, at the age of five, he was returned to the care of his mother, who at the time worked as a laundress. Together with his mom, they moved to a better area of New Orleans. This is where Armstrong first fell in love with music; he would listen to people playing any chance that he would get(Tirro). He would attend parades, funerals, churches and go to cheap cabarets to be able to hear some of the greats play

More importantly however, they are responsible for popularizing songs beyond the walls of racism. Stephen Foster was such a big influence during this time because got people to started the idea that music could be used for commercial purposes. Charles K. Harris was one of these people who took this to his advantage, in which he gained millions of dollars for his sold music. Furthermore, success such as his in the commercialization of music was due to the rise of new technology such as the radio, phonograph, and sound movies.

Nps.gov states that some of the greatest musician in America History has come from the jazz side of the world. Artist such as Louis Armstrong, Billy Holiday and Jelly “Roll” Morton, pave the way for jazz to reach its height as it did in the early 20’s with the upbeat tempo and smooth classical sound. These artist brung a unique sound to jazz that was not there. Louis Armstrong contribute to jazz is so remarkable, he played the trumpet like no other. His sound was so soothing to the ears. When you think about jazz, Louis Armstrong is one of the first names most people relate to jazz. Jelly “Roll” Morton was probably the most influence artist there is. An innovative piano stylist and composer, began his odyssey outside of New Orleans as early as 1907. He continue his work throughout the 1920’s and was mainly consider the reason of the swing era.

Rhythm and blues, also known today as “R & B”, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940's rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable.

Musically, this film helped portray just how talented Ray Charles was, with the help of trained classical pianist and gifted singer, actor Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx was able to portray Ray’s cool style of song while representing the historical time when fusion of swing, bop, R&B, gospel, and rock were developed in the jazz scene.The film Ray provides an unflinching portrait of Ray Charles’ musical genius while overcoming drug addiction and transforming into a beloved performer. A few songs that I recognized in this film are “I Got a Women”, “Georgia on My Mind”, and “Hit the Road Jack”. All in all, Jamie Foxx played such an inspiring role capturing both aspects of music and real life struggles that Ray Charles is known for. Since Ray Charles was a popular and known jazz artist in the 1940’s - 1960’s, he would have been around for both the bebop and post bop eras, which was also around the same time as the Civil Right Movement. The film captured the realization that race was an issue during Ray Charles’s life and that his innovation of fusing gospel style of music was a revitalized sense of black pride. Overall, Jamie Foxx’s performance was nothing of amazing and Taylor Hackford’s film was a great representation to Ray