Post by Emerald City on Dec 8, 2004 18:09:21 GMT -5
By Alex Veiga
Six months after his death, Ray Charles is having a career year. He's the subject of the critically acclaimed biopic "Ray," his posthumous album, "Genius Loves Company," has become a best seller, and on Tuesday, it received seven Grammy nominations — more than any other album by the musical icon.
The compilation of duets with the likes of Norah Jones , Elton John and Willie Nelson, is up for album of the year and best pop vocal album. "Here We Go Again," which he sang with Jones, was nominated for record of the year. And duets with John, Gladys Knight and B.B. King are also up for awards.
"To see this kind of recognition for him is so gratifying," said John Burk, who produced the album. "It is a bittersweet thing because now he's not here to see it happen."
Charles died of acute liver disease June 10 at age 73; "Genius" was released two months later and has become the best-selling album of his career, selling 1.2 million copies so far.
Charles worked on the album even as his health started to falter. His duet with John, "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word," was the last song recorded for the album.
"Certainly Elton and I knew he was fragile," said producer Phil Ramone, who worked with Charles on a couple of the recordings on "Genius."
"That performance is probably one of the most heartfelt readings I can remember," Ramone said. "It certainly brought tears to Elton and the rest of us."
Over his six-decade career, Charles earned 12 Grammys , including best vocal performance for the song "Georgia On My Mind" in 1960. He won four of the five awards for which he was nominated that year.
He was also no stranger to award-winning duets. In 1990 he won a Grammy for "I'll Be Good To You," a duet with Chaka Khan.
Still, Charles initially had doubts about recording a full album's worth of duets, Ramone recalled.
"In the beginning he was a little bit worried about doing something that might be perceived as corny, doing duets and stuff," Ramone said.
But Charles became energized by the project when he began to sit in with the other performers.
One of Charles' collaborations on "Genius" was singing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" with Johnny Mathis . The track was recorded about a month before Charles' death.
"He was joyous in the studio, he was happy to be doing it," Mathis said. "It was another time for him to express himself. I'm sure he knew he was gong to die pretty soon."
Mathis said it's regrettable Charles is not around to see the recognition that his work is getting.
"But Ray, fortunately, got a chance to enjoy his life, probably more than people can imagine," Mathis said. "He lived music. Absolutely lived it."
