This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.
By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, December 2004
Since the death of Ray Charles, we’ve seen the release of a greatest hits package, an album of duets, and a film and its accompanying soundtrack. This won’t take anyone familiar with the music industry by surprise, and in the time since his death, Charles has had some of his biggest sales ever, as well as several Grammy nominations. Rhino has now released a DVD of two television performances from the 1960s shot in Brazil.
Recorded live in 1963, a large backing band kicks out to perform with one of the greatest musicians at the time. Ray Charles would lead this band in two great performances of rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, blues and more. If there are any people who doubt the genius of Ray Charles, you should make them listen to this… but don’t let them watch it.
If you ignore the terrible camera work, the low quality of video from the 60s and the washed out black and white, it’s an amazing performance. Charles was on the ball with this performance and his band left me amazed. Song after song of mostly covers were incredible. Scattering a few gems like “Hallelujah, I Love Her So”, “Hit The Road Jack” and the forever classic “What’d I Say”.
The second performance loses some of the gusto that the first had. With poorer video and audio quality, at times getting to terrible, they also included (for true purists) the Brazilian commercials that had originally aired with the performance. The band still generates a great performance, while cameras zoom into singers’ noses and shake as the operators move.
O Genio makes me wonder if so much of Ray Charles’ material had been released that they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. It seems that way and only leaves us to wonder what else Charles’ estate has that they thought this was better than. Making this a CD rather than a DVD perhaps would have been smarter and have made a better product.
Definitely a product designed for fans, O Genio looks more like a bootleg than an official release. It’s not something that will appeal to those who aren’t already collecting rare performances of Charles’. Still, it’s Ray Charles, and the product suffers from technology, not performance.