Ray Charles
Symphony Hall
Boston, Mass. U.S.A.
September 23, 1978
(incomplete recording, last part of concert only
unless and until I can locate my missing first tape,
I've been looking for it for about 20 years
and still haven't completely given it up for gone)
performance quality: A-
recording quality: B (for an aud at Symphony Hall with mono Sony deck, it's not bad at all)
source: master audience cassette tape (TDK-AD C-90)
runtime: 74:18
a this and that production.
(And a 3 stepper: master > WAV > FLAC > torrentially yours.)
comments:
I've been looking around for years trying to find the 1st tape of this concert, and have
not had any success, although I think more than half of it is on this second tape.
This appears to be the end part of the show, and it is a good one, only 1 tape flip
interruption. Not too sure how much is missing here, or if Georgia on My Mind is
in this part of the recording (he did play it). This was one of two shows I recorded
at Symphony Hall (the other was Tyner/ Rollins/ Carter Foster) and I'm sure I did
record all of both those shows. Not sure if this was recorded on the Sony TC 48 or
56, probably one of those (mono deck, auto leveling, maybe with an external mike
plugged in), the recording came out fairly well. There is moderate crowd noise
especially between songs, it was not every day Ray Charles played in Boston, and
alot of folks were very happy to see and hear him. This recording has never been
circulated before in any form that I can remember, and although it is missing maybe
the first 45-50 minutes of the show (if I ever locate it I will post the whole thing
if possible, or else a part 1 post)
in the meantime, this is a pretty full disc of live Ray Charles that has probably
not been heard before by most folks from any recording. I don't see much Ray Charles
on dime, (I have seen a couple) and felt I should post this since it is from my master
recording and because alot of people like Ray Charles. The few Ray posts I've seen have
been popular DL's, and Why not, he's a very distinctive and soulful singer and performer.
Sorry, but I don't know his songs very well at all, setlist help would be very welcome
for this one. I thought two thirds (11 songs) of a Ray show would be better than none
at all, so if you like Ray Charles and don't mind the large missing chunk, I think you
will enjoy hearing this. It's the only time I ever saw him, and it was a fine show. Ray
sounded passionate and enthusiastic and sang like only he knows how (also played piano).
If I ever do find that 1st tape, it won't ssound quite as good as this part, because
it's on some cheaper brand of cassette. This part is on a TDK Ad cassette and has hardly
ever been played so it is still in nice condition. Still worth hearing if I ever find it. I was not
very organized with part 2's in the late 70's yet which has infuriated some, but I am
putting some of them together, bit by bit finding them as I go along.
This is unforunately one that remains on glasnostrd19's list of "unsolved (cassette) mysteries".
Do not sell this recording.
Trade freely and losslessly.