Ray Charles and Count Basie

[Elissa]

So I walked downstairs to get my cuppa joe just this minute and happened upon a thing I'd never heard of: Ray Charles and Count Basie on a record called Ray Sings, Basie Swings, for sale at the Starbucks cd trolley. So of course, along with my coffee, I bought it. Well I've only just opened it and feel totally duped to discover ain't no Basie nowhere near this album. Bastards. I haven't listened to it yet but want to return it anyhow. It could have been the actual Count Basie Orchestra from looking at the cover, or should I have known better? Not that I have anything against Butch Miles, Tony Suggs, James Leary and Will Matthews - I just don't want them passed off as the real thing.

Grrr

Edited October 3, 2006 by Elis

[Elissa]

I guess in my excitement I saw 'never-before released' and 'rare discovery' on the cover without getting to the 'brand new performances by the Count Basie Orchestra' bit. Surely they'll make millions. This is one of those sick post-mortem creations - like the job Natalie Cole did on her blessed papa.

Grrr.

Edited October 3, 2006 by Elis

[jazzbo]

Sorry you got caught by that marketing ploy. We had discussed this here in advance of the release. . .which is how I would know to avoid the trap.

[Elissa]

Happy to report they took it back opened. Bastards. Where is the organissimo discussion?

Edited October 3, 2006 by Elis

[jazzbo]

Oh it's in here somewhere, started by Dan Gould I believe, about three or four months ago. I am having no luck with the search function today!

[king ubu]

Here's the previous thread: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...23&hl=basie

Sorry to hear you've fallen for the marketing crap, and all the more good you were able to bring it back!

[Dan Gould]

Oh it's in here somewhere, started by Dan Gould I believe, about three or four months ago. I am having no luck with the search function today!

Actually, Lazaro started it:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...&hl=charles

Here's an interesting article about it in today's NYT:

Critic’s Notebook | Music

A Union Made in Musical Heaven: Two Legends, Neither Living

By NATE CHINEN

Published: October 3, 2006

Ray Charles and Count Basie never recorded together, to the best of anyone’s recollection. But that hasn’t stopped the realization of an album called “Ray Sings, Basie Swings,” which Concord Records and Starbucks Hear Music are jointly releasing today. In fact, that lack of precedent has been one selling point in a carefully plotted promotional campaign for the album, a byproduct of artistry and technology that illustrates the commodification of classic pop in our time.

The seeds for “Ray Sings, Basie Swings” were sown late last year when John Burk, a Concord executive, trawled the label’s vaults and came across a box with the promising label of “Ray/Basie.” As it turned out, the tapes inside offered no evidence of collaboration: they were soundboard recordings from a European tour in the 1970’s, with each artist leading his own band. The sound quality of the Ray Charles tapes was uneven, with his lead vocal coming through clearly but the music sounding distant and muddy.

Mr. Burk, who was the chief producer on “Genius Loves Company” — Charles’s last studio effort, issued in 2004, after his death but before the release of “Ray,” the biopic starring Jamie Foxx — refused to let history have the final word. He thought it seemed feasible to graft Charles’s vocal tracks digitally onto fresh backgrounds recorded by the present-day Basie Orchestra, sans Basie, who died in 1984.

So Mr. Burk brought in Gregg Field, a producer and engineer who also happens to be a former drummer in bands led by Basie and Charles. And through a painstaking process that Mr. Field has often compared to “painting the Sistine Chapel with a Q-tip,” the producers managed to create a nearly seamless studio accompaniment for croons and cries last heard onstage some 30 years ago.

We’ve seen this sort of beyond-the-grave work before. In 1991 the Top 40 charts made room for “Unforgettable,” Natalie Cole’s séance of a duet with her father, Nat King Cole, who died in 1965. Five years later, the Coles exchanged verses once again, less successfully, on “Stardust.” And in 1999 there was “What a Wonderful World,” a one-sided alliance between the long-departed Louis Armstrong and the still-breathing Kenny G.

“Ray Sings, Basie Swings” feels more impressive because of a brilliant sustained performance by Charles, in his 40’s and at the height of his powers. But for the record, Basie himself is nowhere to be found, and there’s something slick and airless about Shelly Berg’s arrangements. The new Raelettes, led by Patti Austin, sound duly sassy but a shade too contemporary, as if airbrushed. On the other hand, they’d go nicely with a latte.

Starbucks and Concord, which together sold six million copies of “Genius Loves Company,” have packaged the new album with some purposeful allusions. “Ray Sings, Basie Swings” is a variation on “Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings,” a hit album in 1955, and “Basie Swings, Bennett Sings,” Tony Bennett’s debut with the band a few years later. More flagrantly, the album’s secondary title, “Ray Charles + Count Basie Orchestra = Genius2,” echoes the formulation on one of the most striking titles in the Ray Charles catalog, “Genius + Soul = Jazz.”

That 1961 Impulse! album paired Charles with the Count Basie Orchestra, minus, Basie and featured arrangements by Quincy Jones, who received secondary billing on the cover. Ray Charles didn’t do much singing on the album; he played a Hammond B-3 organ, not his usual instrument. Concord acknowledges this history in one sense — Joey DeFrancesco, as a proxy for Charles, plays B-3 — but also seems intent on obscuring it. Press releases distributed this summer asserted that “ ‘Ray Sings, Basie Swings’ marks the first and only recordings in which the ‘Genius’ is backed by the legendary bandleader’s orchestra,” meaning Basie. Mr. Jones, who praises the album as an “amazing collaboration” in a blurb on the inside cover, obviously didn’t vet that claim.

Mr. Jones was also the bridge between Basie and Frank Sinatra, who established a durable template for marketers of American song. “Sinatra at the Sands” is probably the best-known album to feature the Count Basie Orchestra behind a popular singer, and so it hardly seems coincidental that the cover illustration of “Ray Sings, Basie Swings” features a similar graphic design: a horizontal row of asterisks with a rectangular block of text.

Mr. Field, the producer of “Ray Sings, Basie Swings,” has a pertinent tie to Sinatra too: he played on the 1993 album “Duets” and its sequel, “Duets II.” Those releases, produced by Phil Ramone, paired Sinatra with singers ranging from Barbra Streisand to Bono, and technology played a big part in bringing them together. Of course, that technology — fiber-optic connections that allowed Sinatra’s duet partners literally to phone their parts in — now seems downright quaint. At the time, it sparked impassioned debate about what constitutes a performance: in The New York Times, Stephen Holden hailed “Duets” as “a stunning intergenerational collaboration” while William Safire called it “a series of artistic frauds.”

The public was far less conflicted. “Duets” became the first multiplatinum album of Sinatra’s career, with more than three million copies sold. For adult-contemporary artists, the duets concept almost became a license for printing money; Ms. Streisand and Elton John are among the artists to cash in. A more recent example, Notorious B.I.G.’s “Duets: The Final Chapter,” could be offered as proof that duets albums aren’t just for your parents anymore. It also demonstrates how little difference it makes, commercially speaking, whether the artist at the center of the action is actually alive. (The album was certified platinum within two months of release.)

“Genius Loves Company,” which featured some production by Phil Ramone, was promoted as an answer to “Duets,” and it sold appropriately: it’s the only multiplatinum album in the Ray Charles catalog. It also won eight Grammy Awards, including album of the year. That’s a tough benchmark for the new album, even though it captures Charles in much better form.

After all, it will be up against the first true duets effort from Mr. Bennett, released by RPM/Columbia Records last week in honor of his 80th birthday. His “Duets: An American Classic,” produced by Mr. Ramone, features Bono and Ms. Streisand but no fiber optics, so to speak. When Mr. Bennett performed last Tuesday at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, he welcomed the singers Natalie Cole, Elvis Costello and Michael Bublé onstage, in the flesh.

Nothing beats that sort of interaction, but sometimes you’ve got to do the best you can with what you have. A few years ago the Sinatra estate authorized a concert production that featured, among other things, some of Sinatra’s televised performances synched to a live 40-piece orchestra; in New York it played at Radio City Music Hall.

Surely the team behind “Ray Sings, Basie Swings” has entertained the thought of presenting Ray Charles in similar fashion, using archival film. Failing that, there’s always Plan B. The Basie Orchestra is available; has anybody heard from Jamie Foxx?

I don't have a problem with the current Basie band being joined to prime-era Ray, though I would have hoped that the Rae-lettes wouldn't have to be "recreated" by Patti Austin et al. The article sure makes it clear that the Concord PR department amped up the hype to "11".

[Elissa]

So who gets the royalties, ya think?

[king ubu]

Well, not us, alas, even though we're perfectly royal

[Swinging Swede]

Well, the cover does say "COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA" which indicates that it's a post-1984 recording. When Basie was still alive it used to be "COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA". It's typical for big bands that carry on after the leader's death that they are called ("The") + [name] + "Orchestra".

In a way this orchestra is the real thing. In his last few years Basie sometimes couldn't perform due to illness, and Tee Carson used to sub for him. When Basie died the band simply continued its engagements, with Tee Carson on piano, and just kept going. Freddie Green remained in the band until his death in 1987, for example, and was on the first post-Basie album, Long Live The Chief from 1986. Gradually the members died or left, and were replaced as had always been the case. The band has continued touring and recording, and has won at least one Grammy (perhaps more?). In the current edition there are still about five members that were hired during Basie's lifetime, including leader Bill Hughes who first joined in the 50s. So the New Testament band that was formed in late 1951 has never disbanded, but is still with us, which I think we should be grateful for. It has also not fallen into the trap of only playing the trusted repertoire, but has continually recorded new material from different arrangers, just as during Basie's lifetime. Actually I read an interview with Hughes some months ago where he mentioned that they were planning to soon go into the studios to record an album of new material, and I know I will pick it up when it comes out!

[Claude]

Well, the cover does say "COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA" which indicates that it's a post-1984 recording. When Basie was still alive it used to be "COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA". It's typical for big bands that carry on after the leader's death that they are called ("The") + [name] + "Orchestra".

I know this was common with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington orchestras, but I think already that was quite misleading, and I'm sure that many record buyers didn't notice that subtle difference in the name and were surprised to find out that the legendary bandleaders were not present on the recordings (which could have been made before their death). A name like "Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra" would have been more appropriate.

Imagine V.S.O.P. touring as the "Miles Davis Band" ...

This new CD is a real scam in my view, because the title suggests a historic meeting between Ray and Count. I'm only commenting on the marketing aspect, not the artistic problem of such a studio collage.

Edited October 3, 2006 by Claude

[jazzbo]

I think most prospective buyers would grab this for Ray, that cat who died not long ago and that they made that cool movie about, as opposed to for Basie or Basie AND Ray. . . .

Edited October 3, 2006 by jazzbo

[Alexander]

I knew about it in advance and I bought it today for the simple reason that it's an unreleased Ray Charles vocal circa 1973 (I believe). I listened to the tracks on iTunes last week (they had for sale a week ago) and I thought it sounded good enough to pick up. Am I a little pissed about the marketing scam? Not really. I knew ahead of time that it wasn't the real thing, so I don't feel duped.

[CJ Shearn]

my mom d/l the preview on AOL and I heard it. It does sound good but the way they did it, I don't know.

[ejp626]

I think it is going too far, particularly Rae Sings, Basie Swings. How could you possibly read that title and not expect that Basie (even archival Basie) is the pianist? I do think it is willfully misleading and unethical.

[Alexander]

I don't care if it's unethical. Concord owns the tapes. They can do whatever the hell they want with them, so long as they pay Ray's estate.