What causes such disparities? Is it predestination or luck? The answer is found in purpose. Purpose is the reason for your existence, the reason you were born. In short what you were born to do. The secret to success is found in the discovery and fulfilment of your purpose. With purpose life becomes meaningful and existing. What could be more exciting than fulfilling your God-given assignment?
Today we will look at Ray Charles a musical genius who discovered his purpose despite being visually impaired. At the pinnacle of his career he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was one of the first inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1987 he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991 he was inducted to the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 2004 he was inducted to the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame. The Grammy Awards of 2005 were dedicated to him.
In 2003, Charles was awarded an honorary degree by Dillard University. Upon his death, he endowed a professorship of African-American culinary history at the school, which is the first such chair in the United States of America. A $20 million performing arts centre at Morehouse College was named after him and in 2007, the Ray Charles Plaza was opened in his hometown of Georgia.
The United States Postal Service issued a forever stamp honouring Ray Charles as part of it Musical Icons series in 2013. Charles also appeared at two Presidential inaugurations in his lifetime. In 1985, he performed for Ronald Reagan's second inauguration, and in 1993 for Bill Clinton's inauguration.
He was the son of Aretha (William) Robinson, and Bailey Robinson, a railroad repair man, mechanic and handyman. Aretha was a devout Christian and the family attended the New Shiloh Baptist Church. When Ray was an infant his family moved from Georgia, where he was born, to the poor black community on the western side of Greenville, Florida. In his early years, Charles showed a curiosity for mechanical things and he often watched the neighbourhood men working on their cars and farm machinery. His musical curiosity was sparked when he heard a family friend playing an old upright piano.
Charles started to lose his sight at the age of five and went completely blind by the age of seven, apparently due to glaucoma. He attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind from 1937 to 1945 where he developed his musical talent. In school, Charles was taught only classical music, but he wanted to play the jazz and blues he heard on the family radio. While at school, he became the premier musician. On Fridays, the South Campus Literary Society held assemblies where Charles would play piano and sing popular songs.
His father died when he was 10 and his mother followed five years later. The tragic death of his mother forced Ray to drop out of school when he was only 15 years old. He moved to Jacksonville with a couple who were friends of his mother. For over a year, he played the piano for bands, earning $4 a night. Then he moved to Orlando, and later Tampa, where he played with a southern band called The Florida Playboys. This is where he began his habit of always wearing sunglasses, made by designer Billy Stickles.
Charles had always played for other people, but he wanted his own band. He decided to leave Florida for a large city, but Chicago and New York City were too big. After asking a friend to look at a map and note the city in the United States that was farthest from Florida, he moved to Seattle in 1947 where he first met and befriended, a 14 year old Quincy Jones and soon started recording, first for the Down Beat label as the Maxin Trio with guitarist G.D. McKee and bassist Milton Garrett, achieving his first hit with ‘Confession Blues’ in 1949. The song soared to No. 2 on the R&B charts.
He joined Swing Time Records and under his own name ‘Ray Charles’ to avoid being confused with the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson recorded two more R&B hits. Charles reached the pinnacle of his success at Atlantic Records with the release of “What’d I Say” , a complex song that combined gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music and a song that Charles would later say he composed spontaneously as he was performing in clubs and dances with his small band.
Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, the song became a crossover top 10 pop record, Charles' first record to do so. With a career spanning over 5 decades Ray Charles went on to become one of the greatest musicians of all time. Rolling Stone ranked Charles number 10 on their list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. In honouring him Billy Joel noted: “I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley”
Charles died on June 10, 2004 at the age of 73 due to acute liver disease at his home in Los Angeles, California, surrounded by family and friends.
His final album, Genius Loves Company, released two months after his death, consists of duets with various admirers and contemporaries. The album won eight Grammy Awards, including five for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for ‘Here We Go Again’ with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance for ‘Heaven Help Us All’ with Gladys Knight; he also received nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. Till next week “Discover Your Purpose”! – Lynell Dangarembizi is the Founder and Executive Director of Rare Diamond Foundation an organisation established to help “Disabled People Discover Their God Given Purpose In Life” he can be contacted on lynelltd@ymail.com
Post published in: News
Billy Joel was so wrong. Elvis is the greatest singer/performer of popular music ever and will remain so. He was the complete package and could sing anything.