The Birth of Soul [Box] (CD - 1991)

This digitally remastered box set includes a 32-page booklet with an essay by Robert Palmer, complete credits and discography, and numerous illustrations.

Personnel includes: Ray Charles (vocals, acoustic & electric pianos, organ); Mary Ann Fisher, Margie Hendrix (vocals); Mickey Baker, Edgar Blanchard, Wesley Jackson (guitar); David Newman (alto, tenor & baritone saxophones); Hank Crawford (alto & baritone saxophones); Joe Tillman, Don Wilkerson (tenor saxophone); Cecil Payne (baritone saxophone); Freddie Mitchell, Pinky Williams (saxophone); Wallace Davenport, Frank Mitchell, Joe Bridgewater, Charles Whitley, Riley Webb (trumpet); Lloyd Lambert, Jimmy Bell, Roosevelt Sheffield, Paul West (bass); Connie Kay, Alonzo Stewart, Oscar Moore, Glenn Brooks, William Peebles, Panama Francis (drums); Candido Camero, Mongo Santamaria (congas); The Cookies, The Raeletts (background vocals).

Producers: Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Abramson, Jerry Wexler.

Compilation producer: Yves Beauvais, Kim Cooke, Bob Porter.

Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen (July 1991, Sterling Sound, New York, New York).

The title isn't just hype -- this absolutely essential three-disc box is where soul music first took shape and soared, courtesy of Ray Charles' church-soaked pipes and bedrock piano work. Brother Ray's formula for inventing the genre was disarmingly simple: he brought gospel intensity to the R&B world with his seminal "I Got a Woman," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "Leave My Woman Alone," "You Be My Baby," and the primal 1959 call-and-response classic "What'd I Say." There's plenty of brilliant blues content within these 53 historic sides: Charles' mournful "Losing Hand," "Feelin' Sad," "Hard Times," and "Blackjack" ooze after-hours desperation. No blues collection should be without this boxed set, which comes with well-researched notes by Robert Palmer, a nicely illustrated accompanying booklet, and discographical info aplenty. ~ Bill Dahl

This excellent three-disc box set compiles the whole of Charles' output during his trail-blazing tenure with Atlantic Records in the '50s. Though the historical impact of the style he forged during this period is difficult to gauge, it seems fair to say that soul music as we know it would not exist without Ray Charles. Before Charles, two camps of black music existed--one being that of roots, jazz, and blues, the other being the commercial product of smooth balladeers like Charles Brown and Nat Cole. Charles merged the two worlds, creating accessible, radio-friendly pop melodies with a driving backbeat and raw, gospel-influenced vocals.

Charles' R&B work is, of course, only one among many phases in his boundary breaking and genre-blending career. This work still stands as one of his finest achievements--as such smash hits as "Hallelujah I Love Her So," "What'd I Say," and dozens of other phenomenal songs testify. Charles was undoubtedly one of the first musicians to bring this level of soulful, searing emotionality to pop, and almost every tune here bears the distinctive flair that is his signature. Rootsy, sexy, catchy, textured, bluesy, and rockin', THE BIRTH OF SOUL is everything its title indicates. minimize