The Great / The Genius After Hours

A lot of folks forget that Ray Charles was a killer jazz-blues pianist and a better bluesman than most people know, a pianist at home in the hard bop context. This all instrumental set focuses on his jazz piano style with a heavy dose of the blues! There is opener "The Ray" composed by Quincy Jones, "Doodlin'" by Horace Silver and also "Sweet Sixteen Bars" composed by Charles himself. On "Ain't Misbehavin'" there's a heavenly slow sax tune by Ray's regular sax man at the time, David "Fathead" Newman. Of course Ray Charles is an unusual jazz pianist but in these tracks you can find the melancholy, the spirit, the soul and also the irony by this great artist. A genius!