Nat King Ray Influence

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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

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'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.

Cooke's RCA sides were an amazing body of work, at least for the first two years. He broke new ground in pop and soul with the single "Chain Gang," a strange mix of sweet melodies and gritty, sweaty sensibilities that also introduced something of a social conscience to his work -- a number two hit on both the pop and R&B charts, it was his biggest hit since "You Send Me" and heralded a bolder phase in his career. Singles like bluesy, romantic "Sad Mood," the romantic soul of "Cupid," and the straight-ahead dance tune "Twistin' the Night Away", and "Bring It on Home to Me" all lived up to this promise, and also sold in huge numbers. But the first two albums that RCA had him do, Hits of the Fifties and Cooke's Tour, were among the lamest LPs ever recorded by any soul or R&B singer, comprised of washed-out pop tunes in arrangements that showed almost none of Cooke's gifts to their advantage.

B.B. King or ‘The King of Blues’ was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His young parents unfortunately divorced, and his mother passed away when he was 9 years old which left him to be raised by his grandmother. King attended school until the 10th grade when he dropped out of school and started to work at a cotton gin near his hometown. Despite dropping out of school he continued to teach himself math and different languages well into his later life. He worked at the cotton gin earning a penny a pound and singing gospel music on street corners. His musical career started when he was studying under his cousin Bukka White. King met a woman and was married at 17 years old. “I guess I was looking for love, because I never had anybody I believed truly loved me” (B.B. King). The marriage quickly came to end when they got a divorce months later. “Since my early childhood, I had a problem trying to open up. Please open me up. Look inside!

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.

It was justifiable for Ray Charles to take gospel music and turn the song into secular because a new generation was arising. In a community where different genres of music are seen as competition in the music industry, Ray wanted to stand out. The best way to achieve this he had to cause controversy. By remixing and old time favourite gospel track, he gained popularity both negative and

The Queen of Neo-Soul released a second album the same year of “Baduizm”. This was her first LP album titled “Live” and it also went double platinum. The same release day of the album Badu gave birth to her first child, Seven Sirius. The hit song “Tyrone” became no. 1 for six weeks straight. The song was freestyled and loved by so many. Check out her live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY2-mrsXgMM

“ All I Could Do Was Cry” and “ Rather Go Blind” rings many bells even up until today's time. She signed with Chess Records in 1960 and she became very popular. “ Something’s Gotta Hold On Me” was a gospel ballad Etta did which has been used in movies such as “The Color Purple “ , “Burlesque” . Also sampled in 26 songs and covered 5. This showed me a lot of her music was well liked and amazing. In 1967, Etta recorded with “Muscle Shoals “ house band which they got the album “ Tell Mama” and is well known . 1973 critics have good feedback from her album which resulted in a Grammy Nomination. After her contract was up with Chess Records Etta left and signed with Warner Brothers , few years later

In 1958, she continued to produce another string of hits including “Stupid Cupid”, “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”, “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own”, and “Don’t Break the Heart that Loves You”, which all came in at number one. Her hit singles continue to be popular today among many audiences.

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.

The term “rhythm and blues” was coined in 1947 by a white man named Jerry Wexler who was a reporter, editor, and writer for Billboard Magazine. The record

Ray Charles is a famous musician and was sometimes called “the father of soul”. He did something fascinating in order to be called “the father of soul” which is combining different genres in order to make soul. Ray Charles was born on september 23, 1930. Ray Charles also, played many instruments including piano, saxophone, and clarinet. He was a great musician in the 1950’s.

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