(Impulse!)
All my life I've heard "Look, I know seeing the words 'Ray Charles' and 'jazz' on an album cover sounds really really appealing, but the album is famous chiefly because so many people bought it with that thought and it's actually really boring and copies of it flood the used marketplace." But did I listen? No, because if it says "Ray Charles" and "jazz" it has to be something fucking amazing.
It's not, but in fact the album is decent enough, if enormously disappointing by mere virtue of being incredibly generic, with only two Ray vocals and a lot of Ray organ, and one stone classic in the form of "One Mint Julep." But listening to a bunch of Count Basie Band performances is never a hassle or a bore, it's just not the reason most of us turn to Ray Charles. In many ways this is a more relevant monument in Quincy Jones' career than in Charles'. Still, nothing I can possibly say will deter you from satisfying your curiosity; I'm proof of that. The album is unceasingly pleasant, and even worth having, but it isn't remotely as fine as its title suggests.
[SEE ALSO:]
Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962)
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