Search - Ray Charles :: Genius + Soul = Jazz / My Kind of Jazz

Not Ray at his best

thedevilscoachman | Vienna, Virginia | 12/16/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I feel bad disagreeing with the other reviewers, who seem to love this album, but I think its pretty uninspired and I don't like it much. The arrangements are often pretty limp, the soloing isn't great, Ray doesn't sing but on 2 songs, which is too bad because his voice is as expressive as his piano playing. This disk sounds to me like Ray Charles trying to cash in on the soul-jazz movement of the mid-to-late 1960's by adopting that style - and given that Charles is an innovator of the first order, his adoption of a style he didn't invent doesn't come off right, to my ears. Don't get me wrong, Ray Charles is a great jazz artist, but I think the place to hear it is on "Soul Brothers/Soul Meeting," his late 1950's teaming with Milt Jackson, or on David "Fathead" Newman's solo records of the 1950's, where you can hear Charles's classic band doing some excellent straight-ahead jazz. Still, it gets three stars because some parts aren't bad, and because its Ray Charles."

One good one, one not so good

Michael Crowley | Albany, CA USA | 10/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Genius + Soul is fantastic! Ray Charles on the B-3-what more do you need to know? If you do need to know more, it features players like Clark Terry, Thad Jones, Fathead Newman, Frank Foster and Roy Haynes-- in fact, on some of the tracks the band is the then-current version of the Basie band, minus the Count of course --with arrangements by Quincy Jones and someone named Ralph Burns, who is just as good. It rocks. It's too bad Ray doesn't sing more-just on I've Got News for You, I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town and sort of on One Mint Julip--but still, this is as soulful as jazz gets.



On the other hand, My Kind of Jazz is clearly filler, which Rhino, to its credit, pretty much admits. There are extensive new notes on Genius + Soul written for the 16 page booklet included with this reissue, including comments on every track, but on My Kind of Jazz there are all of two paragraphs (the first paragraph starts "With the added space available in the CD format"-in other words, we had some extra space to fill). It's pretty good if you're a fan of big band music, kinda got a little funk goin' on, although not nearly as much soul or blues feel as Genius + Soul, and other then Blue Mitchell I've never heard of the players (the drummer is listed as "unknown"). But you'd never know this was a Ray Charles album. His piano is low in the mix, and his few solos are undermiked and unusually tentative-sounding. And in general it's a little on the generic side, unlike Genius + Soul, which is Ray all the way, vocals or no.



I still gave it the whole CD four stars because Genius + Soul is just so damn good."

Swinging, funky, and so very cool

Michael Crowley | 06/18/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This (Genuis+Soul=Jazz) is just a great big-band, swingin' blues album. it's well-produced, the Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns arrangements are perfect, and Ray plays the organ in an individual, bop-tinged style with just a hint of Jimmy Smith (see also Genuis of Ray Charles for more great keys work). Addictive."