Track Listing

1. Oh What A Beautiful Morning
2. Let The Good Times Roll
3. How Long Has This Been Going On?
4. Every Saturday Night
5. I Can't Stop Loving You
6. Cryin' Time
7. Busted
8. Come Live With Me
9. Feel So Bad
10. The Long And Winding Road
11. Look What They've Done To My Song
12. Georgia On My Mind

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24583 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The producers of this CD discovered archival reels of Ray Charles and the Count Basie Orchestra performing live together in 1973. Although the vocals were superior, the remaining elements were or extremely poor quality. They decided to bring the current Count Basie Orchestra into the studio and, using the latest technology, they carefully and painstakingly laid down a new musical backdrop for Charles' towering vocals.

More from Ray Charles and the Count Basie Orchestra

Genius Loves Company	Ultimate Hits Collection	Ray! Soundtrack
America's #1 Band: The Columbia Years	Count Basie at Newport	Swing Shift

Amazon.com
To fake or not to fake: That is the question consumers must answer for themselves in assessing this feat of aural Photoshopping: an "imaginary concert" created by combining recently discovered soundboard tapes of Ray Charles's vocals from a mid-'70s European show and newly recorded backing by the Count Basie Orchestra--the "ghost band," still on the road 22 years after Count's passing. Charles is in exceptional voice, singing the heck out of standards like "How Long Has This Been Going On?," Genius classics like "Busted," and pop covers like Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song." His performance is a thrilling corrective to forgettable posthumous albums like Genius Loves Company, designed to cash in on the new audience created for him by the movie Ray. But as competently as the Basie band fill in the blanks under the direction of Bill Hughes, with Joey DeFrancesco guesting on organ, most of the new arrangements are rather pallid, and the ensemble lacks the personality of both the Basie orchestra and Charles's best groups. And as attractive as Ray Sings, Basie Swings may be for the casual listener, the gimmickry will appall serious fans, particularly since neither Charles nor Basie--who never collaborated in life--was around to lend his approval. Is The Doors Sing, Woody Herman Swings next? --Lloyd Sachs

From Amazon.ca
Ray Sings, Basie Swings proves not only that there's a market for Brother Ray's every last recorded utterance (and a breathless one at that), but that musical grafting can reap some seriously satisfying rewards. After Concord Records A&R chief John Burk mined his label's vaults in 2005 and came across tapes labeled "Ray/Basie," he made a move to re-record the songs, originally performed in the 1970s; the result is these 12 tracks, in which Charles's whiskey-weathered, old-soul vocals are laid over arrangements by the current Count Basie Orchestra. Charles fans couldn't ask for a classier pairing or more seamless studio wizardry: The classics, from "I Can't Stop Loving You" to "Busted" to "Georgia on My Mind," play as though orchestrated by the Genius himself--tight, nuanced, and intimate-sounding. Less familiar tracks, like the down-home deep-South number "Every Saturday Night" and a couple of covers ("Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma" and "The Long and Winding Road") offer so much in the way of novelty it's tempting to forget that what's playing is mostly the result of modern experimentation. Deep as the disc runs--and no one who who hears the broken-hearted "Cryin' Time" will deny it runs deep--the most essential track on Ray Sings, Basie Swings may be its most lighthearted one: There is no hearing Ray Charles sing "Oh What a Beautiful Morning"--even if it's four in the afternoon, even if it's raining torrentially--without agreeing. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Best Ray Charles CD hands down
I can't understand why anyone would give this CD anything other than 5 stars. It is currently my favorite CD in my collection. I put it on whenever I want to feel really good. Ray is all over it. And as added bonus, this disc is filled with great B-3 alla Joey DeFrancesco and great Wurlitzer. I love Ray and I have many his albums. This is my favorite, even though he didn't really make it. The arrangements are fantastic. It is knit together seamlessly--you would never know that the vocals and the instrumental tracks were recorded 30 years apart. I'd like to buy a case of this CD and give it to everyone I know. BUT IT!

Ignore the hype on this CD
Despite what the producers of this album want you to believe...the vocal tracks on these tracks are not "superior". It sounds like Ray Charles is singing in the shower, and the shower is on the other side of the house....meanwhile, the basie orchestra and the backing vocal singers are blasting away on the couch right next to you.

This is a great technology achievement???? This is horrible, on many levels, and not because they merged two sets of tracks cut 30 years apart. On some tracks, Ray's vocals are basically inaudible...and Ray is just an annoying buzz in the background. Most modern bootleg recordings are way better than this. There's a reason these tapes were buried away somewhere, as good as Ray's performance may have been if you saw the show live.

Spend your hard earned money elsewhere...as another viewer noted...there are much better recordings of both Ray the the Basie Orchestra available.

A 32 YEAR DELAY
WHEN ONE LISTENS TO THIS ALBUM IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE RAY CHARLES VOCALS AND THE ACCOMPANYING BASIE BAND BACKING WERE DONE 32 YEARS APART. CHARLES VOCALS ARE WONDERFUL. THE POST BASIE BIG BAND HAS NEVER SOUNDED BETTER. THE MIXING OF THE TWO RECORDINGS IS SEAMLESS! THIS IS AN AMAZING CD!