Ray Charles, biography of a contradictory man

Ray Charles was one of those great musical geniuses that come around once a century.. Many times he was called “the father of Soul”. However, his musical proposal went much further.

Frank Sinatra called it “The only true genius in the music industry”. And Billy Joel said that “That may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley”.

This fabulous singer, pianist and saxophonist is ranked number 10 among the 100 best singers of all timesaccording to the famous magazine Rolling Stone. He became famous when he used religious music, generically called “gospel,” and gave it a twist that touched the sensibilities of the vast majority.

Ray Charles was also a man something chaotic and contradictory. He was involved in drug scandals at least three times and had a very eventful love and sexual life. Even, and in a way that was somewhere between joking and poetic, he declared himself a hopeless “voyeur.”

Ray Charles’ difficult childhood

The first stage of Ray Charles’ life was truly dramatic. He was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia (United States). He was black in a highly discriminatory land and poor of the poor. On several occasions, referring to poverty of his family, he said: “Below us was only the ground, the red soil of Georgia”.

His mother’s name was Aretha Robinson. She was an orphan From a very young age and at the age of 16 she became pregnant by her adoptive father.. He had survived Aretha’s mother and as soon as he found out about the pregnancy, he fled. Ray’s mother had another son, named George, the result of a new relationship that also ended in abandonment.

Looking for better conditions, Aretha moved to Greenville, Florida (USA). There she worked as a laundress to survive with her two children.

During the first years of Ray Charles’ life, something happened that marked his life forever. In front of him, his brother George drowned in a laundry tub. Ray witnessed it and did nothing, as he was completely paralyzed by fear.

A new way of seeing

Ray Charles’ autobiography says that about nine months after his brother’s fatal accident, he began to have vision problems. Between the ages of 7 and 10 he lost his sight, until he became blind. altogether. Doctors at the time indicated that the cause was glaucoma.

His mother then took him to an institution for the blind and deaf in St. Augustine. There they accepted him because they were moved by the boy’s poverty and disability. As a general rule, they did not accept blacks, but with Ray Charles they made an exception.

There he studied music, between 1932 and 1945. He already had the influence of the music of his church in his head. And with access to Chopin’s notes and first contacts with jazz, he began to forge his own style.

His mother died when he was 15 years old. She had taught him that he should not ask for charity from anyone. For this reason, Ray Charles refused to learn to play the guitar, since this was an instrument typical of begging musicians.

Already an orphan, he went through hunger and greater misery. He had the lucidity to travel to Seattle, where he met Quincy Jones. And there he began his musical career.

The glory and the pain

Step by step, Ray Charles made his way into the world of music, with increasing success. At the time of his death he had earned practically everything he could earn. His music, a mix of blues, gospel and jazz, was already recognized throughout the world.

He began using drugs at the age of 15, when he was orphaned. He never gave up marijuana, but he did manage to give up dangerous heroin, thanks to a detox treatment he did in San Francisco.

She was officially married twice and had 12 children, most of them in extramarital relationships. He considered himself a genius of seduction.

Many consider Ray Charles’ music to be an emotional balm.. In his songs, he whispers, laughs, shouts, improvises, speaks, moans and, above all, projects, transmits. He managed to orient himself so skillfully that some even doubted that he was actually blind. Your song Georgia on my mind It is the official song of his home state.

Finally, he died of cancer on June 10, 2004.

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