Ray Charles

Just before stepping into the great beyond, Ray Charles entered the studio to cut this duets album. On hand are plenty of fellow singing pianists (Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Elton John), as well as grizzled veterans (Willie Nelson, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Cole). This charmer ends Charles' career on a high note.

Like Johnny Cash, Ray Charles was a tough old man who kept making music right up to the
end, probably because everybody was too scared to tell him to knock it off. When he died
in June, he was readying Genius Loves Company, his version of Frank Sinatra's Duets,
featuring pop stars such as James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John and Norah Jones. The
tone is reverential and warm, as the Genius sings "It Was a Very Good Year" with... More >

Accepting help is a great virtue in the dying, and Charles goes out like a lion by surrendering control. The duet partners mean less than the producers--Concord's John Burk augmented by Billy Joel hand Phil Ramone. Their good taste can't stifle Charles, but it can protect him from his own weaknesses, which ever since he got into publishing have included songwriters who owe him points. Instead Charles picks songs for posterity, and even James Taylor's "Sweet Potato Pie" sounds like a standard. But it's crucial that Taylor eases the master's vocal burden, as do Van Morrison, Gladys Knight, and Bonnie Raitt--and Norah Jones, Diana Krall, and Natalie Cole, who's a good half of why this "Fever" is up near Peggy Lee's and Little Willie John's. Elton John and Michael McDonald, on the other hand, end up where Charles often did in his fifties, so set on proving their physical prowess that meaning gets away from them. And Willie Nelson reminds us that past a certain age even the shrewdest singer can't cut it on the wrong day. This is why it's good Charles owned the studio. He got do-overs, and he took them. (Grade - A-)