Timing is everything in music – especially on this live tribute disc to the late, great Ray Charles. Just take the choice of the late Harlan Howard’s country classic Busted. It was recorded at the Rose Theatre in New York on February 9 and 10, 2009. That would be mid-way between septuagenarian singer Shotgun Willie Nelson’s last two drug busts on another Rose – his famed ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ tour bus.
Charles, born Raymond Charles Robinson, died at 73 of liver failure back on June 10, 2004. Although he was best known as a blues-soul-jazz singer and pianist, his deep catalogue includes some country classics. So it’s fitting that Nelson, now 78, and singing trumpeter Wynton Marsalis rejoin forces for this eclectic stroll through Charles’ back pages, with a little help from young Norah Jones.
The vast majority here began life in the country genre – the two Charles originals Hallelujah I Love Her So and What’d I Say bookend the disc.
So what have we got to guide us? Well, old Willie sings behind the beat that’s dictated with arrangements by Marsalis, drummer Ali Jackson and brace of peers. That way, Hank Snow’s I’m Moving On is delivered as a boogaloo, Floyd Tillman’s I Love You So Much It Hurts a waltz and Losing Hand is a dirge with a chain-gang shuffle.
It continues, with Makin’ Whoopee a hard bop two-beat, Unchain My Heart a bolero and Hit The Road Jack is a gospel two beat. Country fans will be pleased Buck Owens Cryin’ Time remains a ballad as does Come Rain Or Come Shine while western swing maestro Red Steagall’s Here We Go Again becomes an r’n’b shuffle. Norah Jones replaces Reba McEntire as duet partner on the latter – one of six songs featuring her vocals.
Make no mistake, this is not a country album – it’s a tribute to a true legend who earned a biographical smash-hit movie. Helpfully, Nelson Family Band icon Mickey Raphael’s harmonica – like the music – transcends many genres on this delicious disc. With Jones’ smoky vocals a perfect foil for the Marsalis-Nelson nostalgia this is nocturnal bliss.
Best Tracks : Unchain My Heart and Cryin’ Time.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Two Men With The Blues WILLIE NELSON & WYNTON MARSALIS.
In A Word: Proof true talent transcends all genres.
Label: Blue Note/EMI
DAVID DAWSON
