11 June 2004
Ray Charles Dies At Age 73
Posted by Zane under: News .
Ray Charles was one of American music’s great innovators, blending the gospel of the black church with the sensuality of the blues to create an emotionally raw genre called soul. He died on Thursday morning at his home in Beverly Hills, California at age 73 after a long battle with liver disease. “The only genius in the business,” Frank Sinatra once said of Charles. Charles’ response: “(Jazz pianist) Art Tatum, he was a genius, and Einstein. Not me.” Whether singing the blues or playing jazz, crooning a ballad or yodeling country and western, Charles combined the raw emotions of black gospel with the sophistication of classical training. Blind since the age of six, Charles battled childhood poverty and later heroin addiction to become one of the world’s most enduring performers.
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