Sunday, September 24, 2006

Happy Birthday Ray Charles

September 23rd - a day to celebrate the life and music of Ray Charles.

As it happened, I had a gig tonight. It felt pretty strange playing the piano and singing all the old standards in a restaurant in Whetstone, all the time wanting somehow to commemorate Ray Charles. I'd like to say it inspired me, or that I somehow felt the great man looking over my shoulder, but I think he has plenty of other shoulders to be looking over on any given night. And on his birthday, he probably takes a break.

There was no way I was going to sing 'Georgia' - a song nobody has ever been able to sing since Ray Charles did it. So instead I just had some fun and sang my own favourites, but with a couple of moments of homage to Ray's style.

I don't think anybody noticed.

2 comments:

James Casey said...

If in a restaurant, presumably you didn't do your own songs?

Joe said...

Every now and again I slip in something of my own - just to keep things interesting. But generally it's all jazz standards and pop/soul classics.