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Fresh Air Archive

Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Hank Crawford

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Fresh Air Archive

By: Terry Gross
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About this listen

 Because Audible was not granted digital audio rights for today's Fresh Air broadcast, we bring you a great archive episode featuring the great singer and pianist Ray Charles, musician Quincy Jones, and saxophonist Hank Crawford. Ray Charles died June 10, 2004, at the age of 73. He was about to go back on tour, but died of complications of liver disease. Charles shaped American music since the 1950s, at first copying the styles of black vocalists like Nat King Cole and Charles Brown. But he soon developed a style all his own. His career grew along with Atlantic records which signed him as a fledgling label. Charles' first hit was "I've Got a Woman" in 1955. He went on to record more bluesy, gospel-charged hits, country, jazz, and rock. Terry spoke with him after the release of his four-CD box-set Ray Charles: The Complete Country and Western Recordings 1959-1986. Musician, producer, arranger, and composer Quincy Jones played backup, as a teenager, for Billie Holiday, along with his 16-year-old friend, Ray Charles. Before going out on his own, Memphis-born saxophonist Hank Crawford backed B.B. King and played with Ray Charles. He eventually became musical director for Charles' band, and he credits what he learned about playing soulful music from Charles. His CD, Hank Crawford: Memphis Ray and a Touch of Moody collects music from his previous recordings: More Soul, From the Heart, Soul of the Ballad, and Dig These Blues. (Original Broadcast Dates: October 19, 1998; November 05, 2001; May 20, 1998; respectively)Want more Fresh Air?
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