By Bob Weinberg
With his recordings for Atlantic, Ray Charles established himself as the pre-eminent soul singer of his generation. And while he’d performed some bluesy jazz for the imprint — dig
Soul Brothers, his 1957 team-up with vibraphonist Milt Jackson — it’s telling that one of his early recordings for the ABC label offshoot Impulse! was a big band outing.
The 1961 release
Genius + Soul = Jazz presented Charles out front of what was basically the Count Basie Orchestra — sans the Count — playing knockdown arrangements by Ralph Burns and Quincy Jones. It was no gimmick. On a set comprising primarily instrumentals, Charles’ trilling Hammond organ puts a gritty, uptown and thoroughly modern spin on the muscular sound of the seasoned swing unit. He also renews his status as a blues singer extraordinaire on “I’ve Got News for You” and “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town.”
But if fans were expecting a Brother Ray vocal on the R&B chestnut “One Mint Julep,” a hit for The Clovers a decade earlier, they were in for a surprise. Quincy Jones’ arrangement, which he wrote in the car on the way to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, is an irresistibly danceable instrumental version of the tune, into which Charles injected a shot of caffeinated Afro-Cuban rhythms. (He does utter the line “just a little pinch of soda,” alluding to a julep ingredient, but most listeners for the past 62 years have heard it as “just a little bit of soul,” textually incorrect but oh, so right.)
Jones and Burns alternated arrangements on a set that highlights the band on burners and finger-poppers such as the aptly titled “Let’s Go” and “Mister C,” and with section players including Thad Jones, Clark Terry, Urbie Green, Al Grey, Marshall Royal, Frank Wess and Frank Foster, who could blame them? Even with all that firepower, Charles chose to spotlight the relatively unknown trumpeter Phillip “Bilbo” Guilbeau throughout, and his fiery solos prove that, once again, the boss’ instincts were right on the money.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1VTSotSPiRvCbAtlQvSS5q?si=03Fz-W1KQRGuHIEAkhOq3Q
