Track Listing

1. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning
2. Let the Good Times Roll
3. How Long Has This Been Going On?
4. Every Saturday Night
5. Busted
6. Crying Time
7. I Can't Stop Loving You
8. Come Live with Me
9. Feel So Bad
10. The Long and Winding Road
11. Look What They've Done To My Song
12. Georgia On My Mind

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23502 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 48 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
To fake or not to fake: That is the question consumers must answer for themselves in assessing this feat of aural Photoshopping: an "imaginary concert" created by combining recently discovered soundboard tapes of Ray Charles's vocals from a mid-'70s European show and newly recorded backing by the Count Basie Orchestra--the "ghost band," still on the road 22 years after Count's passing. Charles is in exceptional voice, singing the heck out of standards like "How Long Has This Been Going On?," Genius classics like "Busted," and pop covers like Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song." His performance is a thrilling corrective to forgettable posthumous albums like Genius Loves Company, designed to cash in on the new audience created for him by the movie Ray. But as competently as the Basie band fill in the blanks under the direction of Bill Hughes, with Joey DeFrancesco guesting on organ, most of the new arrangements are rather pallid, and the ensemble lacks the personality of both the Basie orchestra and Charles's best groups. And as attractive as Ray Sings, Basie Swings may be for the casual listener, the gimmickry will appall serious fans, particularly since neither Charles nor Basie--who never collaborated in life--was around to lend his approval. Is The Doors Sing, Woody Herman Swings next? --Lloyd Sachs

CD Description
The title of this set is slightly misleading: it isn't--as much as music fans may wish it--a collaboration between Ray Charles and Count Basie. Instead, the contents of this 2006 release contain recordings Ray Charles made in 1973, which were discovered in 2005, then overdubbed with backing by the Count Basie Orchestra (though sans the Count himself, who died in the early '80s). The results are highly enjoyable however, with Charles revisiting early '60s hits like "Busted", "Cryin' Time", and "Georgia on My Mind", among others, and the swinging big-band arrangements fit beautifully.

Customer Reviews

Fresh Masterpiece
This combines 30 year old in-concert vocals with new arrangements recently recorded with the current Count Basie Orchestra, some new Raelettes and Hammond B3 from Joey DeFrancesco. It is a studio confection that shouldn't work - but in practice it sounds as good as any Ray Charles album ever recorded and better than most. Ray Charles at his peak - and it all sounds so fresh.

Truly outstanding
Even if you normally frown over this sort of after the event engineering, the marriage of these superb '70s vocals (Ray never sounded better than he does here) with excellent new charts for the Basie Band - also on fine form here - is an unqualified succes and an absolute joy to listen to. Patti Austin's cleverly re-created Raelettes sound provides the luxury icing on a delectable cake. You really don't want to miss this one!

This gig never happened.
This is a brilliant performance by the digital sound boffins. The gig never happened. All that survived from the original performance, sometime in the 70s on a European tour, was Ray's mic track with a very muffled Basie band in the background. The current Basie band has reswung all the original charts and some sound wizard has joined the two together.

Pure genius? Digital Soul? What next Lennon Gigs Hendrix Digs?