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Ray Charles Influence On The R & B Music Culture

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What is the genre Rhythm and Blues? Rhythm and Blues is also known as R&B or RnB. Per Cahoon, Rhythm and Blues is a combination of soulful singing and a strong backbeat. It was the most popular music created by and for African Americans between the end of World War II (1941-45) and the early 1960s. Such Georgia artists as Ray Charles, Little Richard, and James Brown rank among the most influential and innovative R&B performers” (Cahoon). Ray Charles was dubbed the “Father of Soul”. I am going to write about how he changed and influenced the R&B music culture.
Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany Georgia. When he was an infant, his mechanic father and sharecropper mother, moved to Greenville, Florida. The start of traumatic …show more content…

When he was 7 years old, he slowly began losing his eyesight. His mother sent him to a state-sponsored school, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida- where he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille. He also learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. (Biography.com Editors. "Ray Charles Biography." The Biography.com website. 23 June 2015. Web. 03 November 2016). Although he was blind, he became a well-known African American singer, pianist, and composer. In 1945, Charles’s mother died and he toured on the "Chitlin' Circuit" in the South. While on the road, he picked up a love for heroin. At the of age 16, Charles moved to Seattle. There, he met a young Quincy Jones, a friend and collaborator he would keep for the rest of his life. Charles performed with the McSon Trio in 1940s. His early playing style closely resembled the work of his two major influences—Charles Brown and Nat King Cole. Charles later developed his distinctive sound. In 1949, he released his first single, "Confession Blues," with the Maxin Trio. The song did well on the R&B charts. More success on the R&B charts followed with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and "Kissa Me Baby." By 1953, Charles landed a deal with

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