Ray Charles: A Man and His Music

Ray Charles was one of the most diversified musicians of our time. He didn't like being pigeonholed into one category, didn't enjoy being too predictable. Therefore, his entire musical career was characterized by a wide range of styles. Basically, Charles was like a chameleon; just when you thought you knew him, he changed into something else. Charles experimented with and mastered, many different types of music, including gospel, blues, rock and roll, and country and western, as well as R&B (rhythm and blues), and more recently, jazz.

Born, Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia on September 23, 1930, (early in his musical career he dropped his surname to avoid being confused with then popular boxer Sugar Ray Robinson), Charles' early years were marked by poverty and tragedy. At the tender age of 3, Ray started banging on the piano. However, at age 5, tragedy struck. Little Ray was forced to watch helplessly as his younger brother, George drowned in a washtub. Little Ray was so traumatized by his brother's tragic drowning that he developed glaucoma. By age 7, little Ray was totally blind.

Determined to keep her son from wallowing in self-pity, his mother, Aretha sent Ray to St. Augustine's School for the Deaf and Blind. At St. Augustine, Charles learned to read Braille, and was exposed to big band music. He also learned to play the piano and the clarinet. Additionally, it was at St. Augustine that Ray began to develop his knowledge of gospel, country and blues music.

Charles' first real gig came when as a teenager, he joined Cannonball Adderly's band. His early music experiences were very essential in helping him deal with yet another tragedy---the death of his mother. In his own words: "Nothing had ever hit me like that; not George drowning; not going blind. Mama had raised me and now she was gone." Now a sightless orphan at age 15, without a high school diploma, Charles had to pull himself quickly out of his depression and focus on his own survival.