The Ray Charles Symposium

Panels and Workshops

Session 2b: Ray Charles and the Jazz Community

Saturday, September 22
1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
1W

Session Description: This session will use the early influence of Nat Cole on Ray Charles's first trio and the posthumously issued collaboration with Count Basie as bookends, pointing to the large and continuing presence of jazz in Charles’s music. The presence of first-rate jazz horn players, choice of material, and special recording sessions (with Quincy Jones and Milt Jackson) will also be explored. Many don’t know that Charles’s played a very good Charlie Parker-inspired alto sax!

Moderator: Loren Schoenberg