Ray Charles
Ray OST

Fantastic. Emotional. And we could already end here. Everything is magnificent: the movie with a Jamie Foxx who doesn't become Ray Charles, Jamie Foxx IS Ray Charles. The soundtrack of this film is, just to repeat myself, fantastic. The track-list follows the songs in the movie chronologically, so we have a sort of best of.

It starts with "Mess Around," the notes are overwhelming, everything is perfect, calibrated, Ray's voice is not yet at its peak (but it would be very soon), but the piece is impactful, and at the time, as the movie shows us, it was a great success. "I've Got A Woman" is less lively than the previous track, but even here we are in front of something spectacular, with the voice reaching high peaks and with the great performance of sax and trumpets! Enthralling! "Hallelujah I Love Her So" is presented live here, and, in addition to the great performance by the musicians, there is the audience applauding, enthusiastic, the musical feats of the black singer who has music inside he can't see. "Drown In My Own Tears," an extraordinary ballad, atmospheric, where Ray's voice is already something that enters you, digs into the soul, and doesn't move from there. "Night Time Is The Right Time" brings some novelty, namely the presence of a trio of women enriching the sound of the music, certainly a successful choice and an evolution in the sound. "Mary Ann" presents a rhythm that tastes of Latin, at least in the initial part, this too is an extraordinary piece made of tempo and rhythm changes, with the usual, great, performance of the brass section: the soul of Ray Charles' sound. "Hard Times No One Knows Better Than I" is an intimate, very simple piece: piano + voice + drums, to which a chilling sax solo is added, Ray responds with a piano solo: extraordinary! "What'd I Say," live here, has a particular story: Ray, after a concert, learned he had to play for another twenty minutes, so he performed this piece that had been in his head for a long time... they were really other times, times when genius and talent prevailed over money.

The piece, like all the tracks on this album, would become a huge success, with that singing part divided between him and his backup singers: pure eroticism, primitive sexuality that explodes note by note! "Georgia On My Mind" is perhaps Ray's best-known song, with a tear-jerking start led by an orchestra followed by Charles' warm, soulful voice, accompanied by an unspecified number of backup singers, with the orchestra in the background... absolutely beautiful, speechless, a milestone of soul, of blues. "Hit The Road Jack" is a catchy track, another love dialogue between Ray and his women, meaning the three backup singers, this piece is also very famous, as the dialogue between Ray and one of his backup singers, with whom Ray had a relationship: two minutes, only two minutes long for an incredible piece. "Unchain My Heart" deserves a separate discussion just for the rhythmic session heard in the background of this superb track, the three backup singers' voices seem to multiply, and the trumpet solo is the cherry on top of this impactful track. "I Can't Stop Loving You (Live)" has an a cappella intro, followed by the voice and Charles' inseparable piano: a track to dance to in the dark with a colored girl, maybe in one of those late '50s venues smeared with blues and great music: all the romance and sadness of blacks are in this 3-minute track! "Born To Lose" seems to have something of jazz in its sound, perhaps because of that "clean" drum, noting the absence of trumpets and sax and the presence of the orchestra and backup singers. "Bye Bye Love" takes us back to the rhythms of the early Ray Charles, a danceable track, overwhelming like a hurricane of notes: the piano solo is, as always, scary: here too we have a piece of pure strength enclosed in just two minutes: they were really other times! The album closes with a triad of live tracks. It starts with You Don't Know Me, a very slow ballad, for a moment it seems as if there's only Ray with his piano in the room... "Let The Good Times Roll," starts with a burst of drums to which the vocal cords and the singer's fingers are added, the final scream is a sort of liberating shout, followed, inevitably, by the warm applause of the crowd. The album closes with "Georgia On My Mind," presented here in a very long version for the time (5 minutes and 30), this track serves as credits for the album and the life of the immense Ray Charles. There, the show is over, the audience applauds, Ray rises, smiles with his gaze towards the sky, and with his arms wrapped around himself, he bids us farewell...

Goodbye Ray, R. I. P.