Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz Acoustic Sounds Test Pressing

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Ray Charles: Genius + Soul = Jazz Acoustic Sounds Test Pressing

The original Genius + Soul = Jazz was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, late in 1960. The music had the unfiltered blues-riff sound of the 1940s Count Basie band with a little something extra. The Basie part is authentic—Charles employed the majority of the Count's contemporary band that included the likes of trumpeters Thad Jones and Joe Newman, tenor saxophonists Billy Mitchell and Frank Wess, guitarist Freddie Green and drummer Sonny Payne. The little something else might be Charles playing organ, predating Jimmy Smith's Verve big band outings of the mid-1960s. But there is something else, an indescribable something that tempers any genre with soul. That is Ray Charles.

Tracklist:
Side A:
From The Heart
I've Got News For You
Moanin'
Let's Go
One Mint Julep

Side B:
I'm Gonna Move To the Outskirts of Town
Stompin' Room Only
Mister C
Strike Up the Band
Birth of the Blues