Ray Charles CD on Concord

[ejp626]

I just got a catalog from Concord, with Ray Charles' new CD featured prominently. I think that this CD was in the works and they wouldn't have had time to rework the catalog after his passing, but I am not sure. Anyway, the album is called Genius Loves Company, and it appears to mostly be duets. It is supposed to hit the stores 8/31. I hope it is a good final record, unlike those awful Sinatra Duets albums. Here is a track listing.

Here We Go Again with Norah Jones

Sweet Potato Pie with James Taylor

You Don't Know Me with Diana Krall

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word with Elton John

Fever with Natalie Cole

Do I Ever Cross Your Mind with Bonnie Raitt

It Was A Very Good Year with Willie Nelson

Hey Girl with Michael McDonald

Sinner's Prayer with B.B. King

Heaven Help Us All with Gladys Knight

Somewhere Over The Rainbow with Johnny Mathis

Crazy Love with Van Morrison

I suspect this will be Charles' best selling CD of the past 10 years.

By the way, I see Concord also has a new Benny Golson album called Terminal 1. Is this directly related to the film The Terminal? Does anyone know?

[jazzbo]

Don't know about the Golson cd, do know that the Charles cd was slated for release before his death; there was mention of it here on a Norah Jones thread. . . .

[Joe M]

Yes, indeed, the Golson album is music "inspired by" the film.

[chris olivarez]

Looking at that guest line up for the Charles cd it seems to be a mixed bag. Some some but we'll just have to wait for the music to come out.

[Lazaro Vega]

Charles made a nice version of "Evenin'" on the Tony Bennett "Sings the Blues" CD.

[Dan Gould]

Looking at that guest line up for the Charles cd it seems to be a mixed bag. Some some but we'll just have to wait for the music to come out.

I could actually see a good result on the JT tune.

Maybe.

[chris olivarez]

Looking at that guest line up for the Charles cd it seems to be a mixed bag. Some  some    but we'll just have to wait for the music to come out.

I could actually see a good result on the JT tune.

Maybe.

We'll see. I'm keeping an open mind.

[Tjazz]

Looking at that guest line up for the Charles cd it seems to be a mixed bag. Some some but we'll just have to wait for the music to come out.

Really?

The only weak one for me might be Natalie Cole, yet I have several of her albums. I would have bought this album, dead or alive.

I'm sure the Norah Jones duet will help sell this album alot.

[Joe M]

Ray sounds weak on many of the cuts to my ears, still soulful, still Ray, but like an old man. The cut with BB King is maybe the highlight, the cut with Norah is good too.

[Tjazz]

Ray sounds weak on many of the cuts to my ears, still soulful, still Ray, but like an old man. The cut with BB King is maybe the highlight, the cut with Norah is good too.

You have a promo B)

[Joe M]

You have a promo B)

Yes, just got it yesterday.

[ejp626]

The Jazztimes review just came out, and it was very positive. Basically, the reviewer liked all the tracks, except the one with Elton John. I won't run out and get this, but I'll probably pick it up at some point.

[ejp626]

It looks like this album is getting massive exposure. There's some licensing deal, so it will be playing in Starbucks all over the country. I still haven't heard the whole thing, but I did hear three or four tracks while listening to the jazz station in the airplane. For once, the pilot did not have "sounds from the cockpit on" instead of the jazz channel. Has anyone else noticed this? I am wondering if it is one of the few benefits stemming from the general paranoia these days, i.e. we can't eavesdrop on the pilots anymore so we get the jazz channel back.

Of what I heard, the Bonnie Raitt duet was the best. You did notice that Ray's voice was pretty weak on the Elton John duet, but what bothered me was that it was overproduced with strings slapped on (possibly as a way of compensation). It kind of reminded me of the extensive postproduction work done on George Harrison's last record. Anyway, I am more interested in buying the record now, but I'll still probably wait a few more months.

[Tjazz]

I thought the Diana Krall duet sounded strange. Could be I don't know her latest sound, since I don't have her GIRL album yet. I have her other CDs, but her voice sounded different to me on this track.

I enjoyed the album, but Ray's voice seemed alittle weak at times. But considering his health, I won't hold it against him.

Thinking about the artists he had on duets with him, most were older, established individuals. (except for Norah Jones, but she has that older appeal) Was wondering if the so-called 'young' people would enjoy this CD?

[Alexander]

I'm interviewing John Burk (the Concord VP who produced about half the album) tomorrow afternoon. I plan on asking just how he and Ray decided who Ray would duet with. Was it all Ray's idea (ba dump bump)? Or did commercial considerations come into play? I think there are a lot of missed opportunities on this album. The duet with Willie Nelson is kinda sad. I really wish they had done "Crazy." It would have been sublime, I think. The ultimate would have been a duet with Elvis Costello (who called Ray a "blind, ignorant nigger" during a drunkin brawl with Stephen Stills in the late 70s). They could have done "Sittin' and Thinkin'" (a song about getting drunk and regretting it).

I'm interviewing Mr. Burk at 5:00 EST tomorrow (9/29/04). I welcome any ideas for questions. I'm only getting 15 to 20 minutes to talk to him, and I'd like to do something original....

[ejp626]

One question would be that there does appear to be a huge push behind this album. Would the marketing have been about the same or slightly less if this hadn't been Charles' last album. Perhaps you could ask if there were any duets that didn't work out for whatever reason (scheduling conflict or creative differences).

As a side note, this doesn't seem to be a bad album to go out on, compared with Sinatra's stunningly bad Duets and Duets II.