How Did Charles Robinson Really Change The Gospel Music?

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Ray Charles Robinson was born in 1932 in Albany, Georgia, he lost his eyesight as a child and studied at the saint augustine School for the blind. At three years old Charles was already trying to involve himself in music. Charles knew a man named Wylie Pitman who was one of the first people to encourage him in music. The family moved from Albany, Georgia, to Greenville, Florida, when Charles was still a child. In Greenville, at the age of five, he began to go blind. At the age of seven, his right eye was removed, soon after that he became totally blind. His blindness required that he used his memory for music aided by his gift of perfect pitch. At 15 years of age, Charles lost his mother; two years later his father passed away.

Upon graduation …show more content…

Charles’ vocal abilities had a somewhat infinite range of sound and because of that he created a unique vocal artistry which crossed even language barriers.

In 1954 a recording session with Atlantic records mixed gospel with rhythm-and-blues and was Charles' "sweet new style" of music. One song recorded that day was going to become his first great success. Changing the gospel hymn "My Jesus Is All the World to Me," Charles took the 8 and 16 measure forms of gospel music with the 12 measure form of standard blues.

Charles said that his invention of soul music came from “the heightening of the intensity of the emotion expressed by jazz through the charging of feeling in the unbridled way of …show more content…

This new identity was the combination of Gospel and R&B. This genre was called soul music.
Later in his career, he began entertaining the world with his amazing and unique records, with the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Other musicians began calling Charles “The Genius”. It was definitely an appropriate name considering the fact that the man never worked in one style, but would always mix different musical styles and make a masterpiece out of almost anything he decided to write, which also earned him the nickname “Father of Soul”.
His biggest success was most likely his transition into pop music. He wrote a song called “What’d I Say”, which reached the number 6 spot on the pop chart and number 1 on the R&B chart.

In 1960, Charles won his first Grammy Award for the song “Georgia On My Mind”, and also another Grammy for “Hit the Road,