Life and Music of Ray Charles Essay

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Life and Music of Ray Charles The history of musicians is a very interesting subject. There are thousands and millions of interesting types of musicians. Ray Charles was a very talented musician. His focus was on Soul Music, which was Jazz combined with Gospel music. Jazz was also a big focus of his music. Ray Charles wasn’t like other musicians. He was a blind musician. Many often wonder how someone can be blind and also be a musician, but Ray Charles was a fine example to show that it was possible. Ray Charles was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. His family was a very poor family. His father’s name was Baily and his mother’s name was Aretha. He was born during the Great Depression. When he was still just an infant …show more content…
He was very proud of his musical career he made himself. Ray Charles lived a very long active life. He came from a very small family, but that had all changed by the time he passed away. By the time he passed away on June 10, 2004 from a Hepatocellualar Carcinoma, he had been through two marriages, nine children who were by five different women, twenty grandchildren and five great grandchildren. In May of 2003 he was diagnosed with liver cancer. The only thing he told the public was that he had hip problems because he didn’t want the public knowing about his diagnosis. He died in his home in Beverly Hills surrounded y friends and his girlfriend Norma. Urethra Franklin his long time very good friend announced after his death that he introduced the world to Secular Soul music. His funeral was handled by the Angelus Funeral Home. His body was also put on display at the LA Convention Center. His funeral services were held at First African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 18th. Many other great musicians from his time attended his funeral as his close friends and they included people such as Clint Eastwood, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Freda Payne, David Gest, Little Richard, Cicely Tyson, and Glenn Campbell. The death of Ray Charles was a very overwhelming sense to many people. Many senses ran through my head while writing this paper. Very little did I know about Ray Charles before researching this paper. Simply the reason he was chosen
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