Ray!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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CD Details
Composer: Craig ArmstrongEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Music Label: Atlantic
Product features:
- Ray Charles - Ray - Ost Movie Soundtrack Brazil Import
- Mess Around
- I've Got A Woman
- Hallelujah I Love Her So (Live)
- Drown In My Own Tears
- (Night Time Is) The Right Time
- Mary Ann
- Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)
- What'd I Say (Live)
- Georgia On My Mind
- Hit The Road Jack
- Unchain My Heart
- I Can't Stop Loving You (Live)
- Born To Lose
- Bye Bye, Love
- You Don't Know Me (Live)
- Let The Good Times Roll (Live)
- Georgia On My Mind (Live)
Music reviews of Ray!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Music Review: Reprinted review of Ray: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from Sound the Sirens Magazine
Rating: 5 Stars
Ray Charles
Ray: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Rhino)
It was a long arduous day of extraordinary stress, including spending three hours on the freeway in traffic that would render a sardine claustrophobic. When I finally got home, all I wanted was to kick the dog, eat cold pizza and watch reruns of "The Iron Chef". However, on my porch lay a pristine Fed-Ex package with the words that put a smile on my miserable puss, "Ray Soundtrack".
Universal Pictures has released a biopic about the life and times of an American musical titan. His name was Ray Charles and his legacy is that he influenced countless entertainers and will do so for generations to come. After watching the trailer at the official website, it appears the storyline takes young Ray from the depths of poverty where he loses his vision at age seven; to the heights of musical achievement built upon a nearly supernatural gift of mental visualization. His abundant musical gifts were fueled this ability to envision and employ his highly evolved sense of hearing, as well understanding "mathematics and its correlation to music" (Official Ray Charles Website).
In a brilliant soundtrack featuring a collection of the artist's most famous songs, the listener is offered a glimpse of the musician's development over a quarter century. "Mess Around" demonstrates a juke joint rhythm and blues approach that Ray developed playing local nightclubs across America; one that was later imitated by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Doctor John and Leon Russell. This sound culminates with "Night Time is the Right Time," which is perfect snapshot of early sixties soul with screaming honk sax, relentlessly steady groove and edgy backing vocals.
The jazzier sound of Mr. Charles is displayed on a sizzling live version of "What I Say," not only showcasing his trademark acoustic piano playing but also featuring a funky electric keyboard that sounds like it could have touched by the hands Ramsey Lewis or Joe Zawinul. The jazz approach is also exemplified on one of the finest pop rumbas ever recorded with "Unchain My Heart." This song defines the coolest work performed by this genius, with superlative delineation of musical textures, prominently mixed female vocals and strategically peppered horn parts. The track separation on this song is simple, masterful and free from the pretension of overblown production.
Early on in his career, Ray apparently did a mean imitation of the great Nat King Cole. This influence is crystal clear upon listening to "Born to Lose," a song that features a pop melody and lush string arrangement right out of the NKC playbook. This highly produced sixties methodology further evolves with "I Can't Stop Loving You", which though highly polished, remains abundantly soulful. By the time he recorded this one, Ray had a style that respectfully incorporated Cole while confidently displaying his own greatness.
Of course, no collection of Ray Charles would be complete without "Hit the Road Jack," a song conjuring up the image of a woman scorned; one who kicks her man in the pants on the way out the door and then throws all his worldly possessions out the 2nd story window. I have a vivid recollection of me and my best friend pretending to be Brother Ray's backup vocalists, singing this classic shuffle on the way home from grammar school. Now that's what I call an influence on popular culture.
This retrospective soundtrack would also be incomplete without the artist's signature song, "Georgia On My Mind." While never my favorite, the folks who produced this record thought to include to the original studio version recorded in 1960 as well as an interesting if not slightly gospel version of this tune recorded live in Japan during a 1976 performance.
Today is Saturday and in my infinite laziness, I am paying someone to clean my home. During this time of brief urban exodus, I will spend my precious time attending the cinema. What will be my film of choice? The one I lay down the exorbitant sum of eight dollars to see? Why the answer of course is Team America. However, if this movie about politically incorrect marionettes fighting global terrorism turns out to be (pardon the pun) a bomb, then I might just sneak into another theatre to watch a movie about boy who climbed out of the wreckage of his own personal darkness to fashion the kind of artistic illumination that will forever be imprinted upon our collective consciousness.
Description of Ray!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
This fall Universal Pictures and Walden Media will release the feature-length biopic Ray!, the never-before-told musical biographical drama of the late American legend Ray Charles. Featuring a remarkable performance from Jamie Foxx in the central role, Ray! follows the inspiring story of a one-of-a-kind genius. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Taylor Hackford (La Bamba, An Officer And A Gentleman), the film features Foxx?s uncanny lip-syncing to classic Ray Charles tracks (utilizing the artist's original master recordings). Ray! is an inspirational story about an amazing artist and human being, with Ray Charles music at the film's very core.Soul and R&B legend Ray Charles may not have lived to see the success of Hollywood's ultimate tribute to him, but director Taylor Hackford's biopic (featuring a landmark performance by Jamie Foxx as the musical legend) will further burnish his legacy as one of the cornerstones of contemporary American music. Though it stretches from 1953's ecstatic, proto-soul "Mess Around" to a sublime, bluesy live take of "Georgia on My Mind" recorded in Japan in the mid-'70s, this 17-track song-score can only be an inviting appetizer to the singer's epochal body of work. Charles's artistry may have virtually defined soul music, yet it also triumphed in genres as far afield as blues ("Nightime Is the Right Time") and country ("I Can't Stop Loving You," "Bye Bye Love") during the '60s, the impossibly rich era from which the bulk of this soundtrack is culled. Crucially, fully a third of the cuts here are live recordings--including electrifying 1965 performances of "What'd I Say," "You Don't Know Me," and "Hallelujah I Love Her So" hand-picked for the film by Charles himself--the forum in which the singer consistently operated on a whole other artistic plateau from mere mortals. -- Jerry McCulley
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