ABSTRACT

The Ray Charles story begins back in September 1930 in Georgia, in the United States. He was born to Aretha and Bailey Robinson, and grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Florida. His sight began to fail when he was just five years old, possibly as a result of glaucoma. He went to school at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, but left after the death of his mother when he was 15. Although his interest in music was already well under way, until this point he had only been taught classical music. But now, free of the restrictions of school music, he was able to explore his true passion. His love of jazz and blues music was able to come to the fore. Ray Charles had heard jazz and blues played on the family’s radio and he knew he wanted to be a part of that sound. He began to play piano for various bands, while living with friends of his mother who had taken him in. He then moved to Seattle in 1947, aged just 17.