Ray Charles, 1930-2004 : I was born with music inside me

Matthew Taylor and Julian Borger

The Guardian

The death of Ray Charles, the blind singer who defied musical categories, drew tributes from some of the biggest names in the world of entertainment last night.

Soul diva Aretha Franklin said the 73-year-old was "the voice of a lifetime" and country singer Willie Nelson declared he had lost one of his "best friends".

Charles died yesterday in Beverly Hills after a long fight with liver disease, surrounded by friends and family.

A hip replacement had taken him off the road for a year, and at his last appearance, with Clint Eastwood in April for the dedication of his Los Angeles studios as a historic building, Charles was in a wheelchair and his famous rumbling voice had been reduced to a whisper.

Yesterday Franklin told the Guardian: "He was a fabulous man, full of humour and wit. A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing."

Nelson said: "I lost one of my best friends and I will miss him a lot. Last month, we got together and recorded It Was a Very Good Year, by Frank Sinatra. It was great hanging out with him for a day."

Charles taught himself to read and write music in Braille after going blind at the age of seven.

He dabbled in blues, gospel and jazz but ultimately he became known as one of the pioneers of soul music.

"People remember the big hits and the visual image of him," said country singer Marty Stuart. "But they forget what an innovator he was in the 1950s as a jazz musician."

In April Van Morrison paid tribute to Charles in Rolling Stone magazine: "His sound was stunning - it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing - it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing."

Charles collected 13 Grammy awards during his career, including a lifetime achievement honour in 1987. He played 200 concerts a year into his 70s, and performed his 10,000th concert last May at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2002 he celebrated the 40th anniversary of his first hit on the country music charts, I Can’t Stop Loving You.

He released more than 100 albums in six decades. "I was born with music inside me," Charles said of his career in his 1978 autobiography, Brother Ray. "That’s the only explanation I know of."

Yesterday Ahmet Ertegun, the founding chairman of Atlantic records who had known Charles for more than 50 years after signing him in 1953, said he was "one of the greatest artists of the last century". "He had a refinement of spirit that made it virtually impossible for him to utter or play a false note. He was a true genius - an artist with a singular musical vision that transformed the landscape of modern culture."

He said Charles combined the most essential elements of all types of American music while creating a body of work that was unmistakably his own. "Whether it was jazz, blues, gospel, soul, country, pop, or rock’n’roll, Ray delivered it in the African-American style that is the world’s music today."

Charles is survived by 12 children, 20 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for next week at Los Angeles’ First AME Church.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1236474,00.html