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As one of the most influential American musicians of the twentieth century, Ray Charles possessed a talent that spanned most modern musical genres. By combining elements of jazz, gospel, and R&B, he pioneered a new genre known as soul and thus became known as the “Father of Soul Music.” Born to Bailey and Aretha Robinson in Albany, Georgia, Charles was reared by his mother in an impoverished community of Greensville, Florida. At age five, he began to go blind and was completely blind by age seven. Determined to provide him with the skills to be independent, Charles’s mother sent him to the St. Augustine School for the Blind. There, Charles learned to read and write music in Braille as well as play the piano, clarinet, and saxophone.

Orphaned at age 15, Charles began his career with country western road bands before touring with R&B bands. By his early twenties, he was a seasoned performer in the tradition of Nat King Cole, but by the 1950s he had departed from traditional ballads. At Atlantic Records, his infusion of diverse musical forms was considered the mark of a genius. Throughout the decade, Charles’s music increasingly appealed to white American youth, despite his refusal to compromise his musical style. While Charles rarely made overtly political statements, the tenor and content of his music often conveyed his empathy for the suffering of black America. In 1961, Charles famously refused to play to a sold-out audience in Memphis, Tennessee, because it was segregated, forcing the desegregation of the concert. The winner of 13 Grammy Awards, including lifetime achievement awards in 1987 and 1994, Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Immortalized in the biographical movie Ray, Charles died of acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills, California, home on June 10, 2004.

Crystal A. deGregory