Ray Charles The Genius Sings The Blues
Featured in Michael Fremer's Heavy Rotation in the April 2011 Issue of Stereophile!
TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 3/5 Sonics in the April 2011 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
Numbered, Limited Edition!
This 1961 collection gathers 12 must-have songs from Charles' peak era. Mobile Fidelity has righted the sonic wrongs that plagued earlier versions. You won't find a better-sounding Ray Charles disc.
Genius doesn't even begin to describe the greatness of The Genius Sings the Blues. Comprised of a dozen songs Ray Charles made between 1952 and 1960, the collection was released in 1961 by Atlantic Records to counter the singer's migration to rival ABC Paramount. What Atlantic originally underestimated is that the album contained many of Charles' greatest works, all unified by their bluesy emotions and stirring arrangements. A classic of the soul and R&B canon, The Genius Sings the Blues is a snapshot of the evolution of timeless American music captured by the pianists indelible rhythmic pace, gospel roots, jazz backgrounds, and Southern-styled accents. And it's never sounded so good.
From the iconic cover art (a photo of Charles taken by legendary photographer Lee Friedlander) to the distinguished music within, everything about the thematic record is iconic. Now, nearly 50 years later, it can be heard in pristine fidelity sourced from the original master tapes. Mobile Fidelity's engineers have taken great pains to ensure that every clink of the piano keys, ache of Charles' rolling voice, and rush of the backing arrangements sounds better than they have since first being recorded in the studio.
Previous editions of The Genius Sings the Blues suffered from varying levels, distracting static and noise, and inconsistent vocal balances. Mobile Fidelity has gone back to the master tapes to correct these problems, giving music lovers what is now unquestionably the best-sounding Charles album to stem from his peak era. And he's simply on fire.
The compilation of blues songs from 1961 was a political maneuver by the Atlantic label to disrupt the departure of Ray Charles to ABC Records. The twelve mono recordings date from 1952 to 1960 and Atlantic had completely underestimated the hit potential of the album. The songs are not only bluesy, but also represent a kind of greatest hits of Ray Charles' early work. The cover photo of Lee Friedlander would later become the blind singer's trademark.
The MFSL Re-Issue used the individual master tapes from the previous Ray Charles albums to show this compilation once again in its latest guise. Many previous re-issues have been content with the digital reworking of copies of the copies used for the compilation and thus cannot achieve the authentic sound of the era. Nevertheless, this album should not be viewed from an audiophile point of view, because Ray Charles occasionally sings over the microphone clearly and tape saturation has to serve as a natural limiter. MFSL engineer Shawn R. Britton decided not to rework these parts, but to transmit the sound of the master tape as realistically as possible. Regardless of these limitations, MFSL managed the feat of bringing the genius absolutely lifelike and growling to the LP in full beam lease.
The MFSL Re-Issue will be released with a sequential serial number.
Whether inhabiting the sadness in "Night Time (Is the Right Time)" or personifying the loss of "Hard Times", Charles invests each song with supreme emotion and undeniable conviction that makes the lyrics ring true and the blues resonate with cathartic pathos. Uptempo country blues numbers ("I'm Movin' On", "Early in the Mornin") balance the mournful slow fare, and again prove Charles a master composer, interpreter, and musician who could make any style his own. The Genius Sings the Blues also speaks to legendary jazz pianist Billy Taylor's initial impressions of Charles upon hearing him in a way in which few other Charles recordings do.
Taylor recalled: "While playing through some new music for a projected Ruth Brown record date, I was asked to listen to an original song played and sung by a young composer and pianist from Seattle, Washington. I can still remember how surprised I was to hear this kind of music from a Northwesterner. He reminded me of Charles Brown, another pianist-singer who was very popular in the Forties, but he had a very personal sound and there was something different about his rhythmic approach. In his handling of melody he seemed to be using devices similar to those used by Dinah Washington and a small group of popular singers who allowed their gospel singing backgrounds to influence their interpretation of popular songs... I was intrigued by the emotional quality projected by both his piano playing and his unusual voice and was not surprised when Ahmet Ertegün said that he wanted to let the young musician record some of his own material. He communicates just like the old blues singers," Ahmet said.
Indeed, that innate blues aesthetic dominates this collection, as does Charles' distinctive rhythmic mannerisms. Finally, hear them as they've always been intended to be experienced.
"Mobile Fidelity has now remastered the original mono master tape-revealing both its beauty and its warts with startling clarity. The beauty, of course, lies in the music." - Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound Magazine, April 2011, Issue 212
Features:
- Numbered, Limited Edition
- 180g Vinyl
Selections:
Side A
1. Early in the Mornin'
2. Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)
3. The Midnight Hour
4. (Night Time Is) the Right Time
5. Feelin' Sad
6. Ray's Blues
Side B
1. I'm Movin' On
2. I Believe to My Soul
3. Nobody Cares
4. Mr. Charles' Blues
5. Some Day Baby
6. I Wonder Who