In Person

This LP edition includes Ray Charles’ sensational live album Ray Charles in Person, recorded on May 28, 1959 with one single mike high above the stage, at the Morris Brown College’s Herndon Stadium, Atlanta Georgia.

The Recording was held at the radio station WAOK’s 5th anniversary celebration during a concert attended by a crowd of 9,000-plus people (mostly African American) which roared in greeting when Ray Charles walked on stage despite the rainy weather. It was in fact one of the first open air music festivals in history: Ray and his band were co-billed with Roy Hamilton, B.B. King, The Driters, Buddy Johnson, Ruth Brown and Johnny Adams, among others.

WAOK’s main disc jockey, Zenas “Daddy” Sears was responsible for th recording using only a microphone but of remarkably high audio quality which resulted in one of Charles’ most cathartic live recordings. Though Sears only wanted to use bits of the recording to advertise other “live” concerts, Atlantic’s producer Jerry Wexler was totally knocked out by the tape and convinced Ray to put it out.

So the album was released in May 1960 by Atlantic Records with the reference number 8039. This is an essential document of this phase of his career when Charles established his own touring and recording band (a virtual who’s who of fabulous musicians from the New York City scene, such as David “Fathead” Newman on tenor and alto sax, Bernie “Hank” Crawford on baritone, Lee Harper & Marcus Belgrave on trumpet and Edgar Willis on bass, as well as the female vocal quartet The Raelettes on backing vocals). With them he developed his unique blend of jazz, blues and gospel until it reached a level resembling a force of nature.