You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Genius + Soul = Jazz – Ray Charles

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

YHI + McBride = Ray Charles?! Christian McBride - bassist, Grammy winner and one of the greatest musical minds working today - joins Adam and Peter on You'll Hear It to share his desert island album.If you know Christian, you know that his musical hero is James Brown. But Christian isn't bringing a James Brown pick. Instead, he's bringing one from his hero's hero ... Ray Charles.This album was a risky move for Charles - unlike anything else he'd released at that time. At the peak of his power, he set aside the qualities that made him famous: his voice and his piano.This one's a deep cut. But once you listen, you'll never hear Ray Charles the same way again.Chapters Legend:🎧 Listening to a track 🎹 Music theory breakdown 🎵 Live studio jam-------------------------------Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs:https://openstudiojazz.com/yhi------------------------------Jazz Organ LEGEND Reveals Favorite Tracks: https://youtu.be/MGMmJ1Jhx6U-------------------------------About You'll Hear It:In this popular music series, Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.-------------------------------Sign up for the You'll Read It newsletter for little known stories about the artists you love:https://youllhearit.com/newsletter-------------------------------00:00 Ray Charles - Genius + Soul = Jazz01:05 Why James Brown Fans LOVE This Album4:41 🎧 "From the Heart"11:30 Funk Starts HERE13:51 🎧 "I've Got News For You"19:35 🎧 "Moanin'"24:18 Roy Haynes LOVED This Album26:46 🎧 "Let's Go"31:03 🎧 "One Mint Julep"34:30 The Quincy Jones-Ray Charles Factor37:56 🎧 "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town"42:08 🎧 "Strike Up the Band"44:53 Desert Island Tracks47:40 What's With That Organ Sound?52:30 The Best Moments on Genius + Soul = Jazz53:28 What to Listen to Next58:34 Better Than Kind of Blue?

Ray Charles invented soul using his voice and his piano. Then at the peak of his power, he set them both aside and went back to where it all started. This is genius plus soul equals jazz. I'm Adam Ennis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Music Explored. Explored brought today by Open Studio.

Go to open studio. Go to open studio jazz.com for, oh. Your jazz lesson needs. Yes, sir. Peter, it's a big day. It is a big day. We say that often, but this, we have actual evidence at the table with this. Yeah, we're listening to an amazing album with an amazing person.

The great Christian McBride is with us. What's up, Christian? What's up, fellas? It's good to have you here. It's great to be with you, too. Yeah. I watch you on the YouTube. On the tubes.

Got to put the ass on the end, YouTube. That's the best version of us. So we'll try to keep that energy going for this show. But, man, we're listening today to a pretty amazing album. album. Ray Charles, genius plus soul equals jazz. Christian, this was your pick. Yes. Why this album?

Well, you know, I think when people say, Christian, pick one of your Desert Island recordings. Everyone assumes I'm going to pick James Brown. But you got to go deeper than that because, like, who do your heroes listen to? Yeah. You know, even your heroes had a hero. That's right. And it's important to realize that while James Brown was called the Godfather of Soul, the person who actually laid the groundwork for soul music,

like basically really the beginning, the Genesis, is Ray Charles. If you talk to anybody who was around in the mid-60s, including the members of James Brown's band like Fred Wesley and Macyo Parker, they looked up to Ray Charles. Everybody in, like, the whole pattern of kind of being your own corporate, You know, had his own record label. He had a jet. You know, he had his own studio.

Yeah, yeah. He had his own building. I mean, Ray Charles was really, really the man. He really set the tone for every independent artist that came after him. And I'm sad that so many so-called music colleges somehow think that, like, black music started in 1965. You know, there's a whole lot of innovators. and a whole lot of groundbreakers on before the mid-60s and Motown. It's an interesting pull, too, because it's kind of a different kind of Ray Charles album.

I mean, he's playing B-3. He's playing a Hammondorne. A lot of B-3. He's playing a lot of B-3. It's with a big band, which we'll talk about. Which, that's not that unusual. Ray did a bunch of different kinds of settings over the course of his career. But it's a really interesting pull.

And it's also, like, I mean, I remember hearing this record. In fact, I think you might have played this formula. when we were on those tours in the early 90s. We used to come to your room in Japan. Remember, we all gather after the gig, and you had a laptop. First of all, we were like, damn, what is this thing you got? But you had all this music on there,

and I remember, and we would exchange listening. It was such an exciting time. But I think that was the first time I heard it. I didn't hear it for a while. And I always assumed, and when you brought this up a couple weeks ago said you wanted to do it, I thought it was so interesting. I always thought this was earlier.

But this was like after Ray was, this is after George, he was a huge star. So this was, could have been, seen as a little bit of a risky move. He's got his own label, but he's coming over to Impulse. This was like one of the first couple of records on Impulse. Exactly. The catalog number is A2.

Oh, okay. That's great. That's incredible. Yeah, it's basically Ray Charles with the Count Basie Orchestra. It's, uh, yeah. Quincy Jones did all of the charts that featured the bassy band. Right. And Ralph Burns, who was one of the main arrangers for the Woody Herman band,

was the other arranger and they kind of use New York hired guns for that and Sarah Vaughn's rhythm section with Joe Benjamin and Roy Haynes. Yeah. Well, let's listen to a little music.

The first track is from the heart. This is Ray Charles original. And there's some parts of this that I used, like, you know, when I first started learning how to write for big band, this was one of my go-to albums. So there's a part in there

that I used for, it wasn't a straight rip, but in my line piece, blues in alphabet city, I'll point it out. I mean, if we're getting called out for playing, doing stuff like Ray Charles, we're all in trouble. Exactly. And this is

a Quincy arrangement, right? Quincy, with the bassy band. This is from the heart. This part here. Damn. Freddy Green. Yeah. Ooh. Do it again. Good, man. One of Quincy's favorite licks right here with the

16th. notes. Woo. He uses that all the time. Man, phrasing on this? Damn. The phrasing right here. It's an interesting organ sound.

It's very, we're going to talk about. Jimmy Smith. We'll talk about that. We're definitely going. Oh. When the space and the patience on this. Damn. We said Roy Haynes, right?

No, that's sunny. It's sunny. Oh, yeah. Just no vibrato. No chorus. Just straight up. I love what he plays here. Put a little beep bob in there.

Yeah. You said it. It's kind of Bud Powell on organ a little bit, you know. There's for sure. Philip Gilbao, who played with Ray Charles. That was Ray's guy. Yeah, yeah. I love to start out the album instrumental for Ray Charles, you know.

I want to point out something at the end of the track. Okay. I want you to listen to the cutoff. and hear how the final chord rings just in the room it's otherworldly the cutoff is perfect and the ring it's like check it out

it's floating yeah yeah so good did Ray record this song on anything else I don't think so that's specifically for that record man what a what a vibe and I mean I'm thinking like 1960 I think it was recording 60 came out in

60 right I mean, this is right in like, oh no, this is before, like, Sinatra and Basie at the Sands. A couple years before. Yeah, a couple years before, yeah. But this is still like, you know, kind of later stage, like big band, you know.

I mean, they get into a lot of like groovy 60s kind of stuff, but this is a little bit of a like looking back, but the freshness. Oh, my gosh, man. I haven't heard a lot of big band stuff from in there, but he nailed it. Man, it sounds so good. I knew you were going to say that. I knew that's what you were going to know.

I want to ask. I want to know. What's your feelings on the organ sound of this, right? Well, by 1960, Jimmy Smith was equally as big a start. I mean, not as big as Ray Charles, but he has certainly set the template for what modern organ playing was. Yeah. And that was a sound. Yeah.

So not that Ray Charles needed to follow Jimmy Smith in any way, shape, or form. But that sound almost more like a, like a Farfiza organ sound. Like a Kalaya Pierce. So this isn't the first time that we've talked about this album on the show. When we had Larry Goldings on to talk about his favorite B3 albums, he brought up this. He loves this album. But I think he even said on that episode that maybe there's not even a Leslie speaker on this organ.

It's just the dry signal. And it certainly seems that way. Like I said, you can't hear any vibrato. It certainly don't hear any like road. It's a little bit like Rangelder records a piano. Let's be honest. Well, and also it says here, Rudy Van Gelder adjusted the inside of Ray's Hammond B3, so it had more of a percussive sound.

He had done this before on other organs for other recordings. So it's even sort of a Van Gelder. He didn't do it to Jimmy. I mean, that sounds. Or Jack McDuff. Yeah, those sounds are as like sweet and smooth. And this doesn't have that same like

beautiful bubbly attack that does. It's like a harsher attack or the depth of like, like when Jimmy Smith like holds a big chord, it has this like, it blossoms almost. And this organ doesn't have that. Yeah, it's very interesting. I mean, if it wasn't really interesting. Ray Charles. Well, that's the thing. He still plays

the hell out of it. I know. I know. I was thinking how hard would it be to play some of those bebop lines on such a dry instrument? I know that. Yeah, yeah. Really impressive. Yeah. And he throws off the bebop stuff just like it's just, that's just like a little part of the other thing. And I feel like he doesn't get enough credit

for that. I mean, Ray Charles is one of those kind of people where he did so many different things so well. Yeah. At some point, you just, you know, you was like, man, I'm sick of this guy doing everything well. So you kind of overlooked certain things, but he got his bebop together. For sure. I mean, on that opening line, I almost said

this is annoying how good he is and all that stuff, man. Well, just the fact that, I mean, he's known as a pianist first and then electric piano. Yeah, but he's also the world's greatest vocalist at this point. You know what I mean? It's kind of, it's a little bit of a knack on. And an arranger. He brought a lot of his own arrangements.

Not on this album, but, you know. And bandleader. And band leader. You know, like, innovative. How many stars came out of his band? You know, David Fayehead, Newman, Hank Crawford. Yep. Marcus Bellgrave is kind of nuts. I mean, is there, not even beyond just the stylistic lineage, is there a James Brown in terms of how he ran his bands,

not even talking about running his business without Ray Charles? Like, does that even happen, you know? I doubt it. I seriously doubt it. Because, I mean, everybody needs a template. They need to look at something and go, either someone doesn't have it or somebody has it and says, I need to figure out what that is.

Right. It's possible, at least. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Quick one. If you'll hear it is all about loving music, then Open Studio is all about living at courses, community, and conversations with musicians who have done the work. Go to openstudiojazz.com to start your free trial. That's Open StudioJazz.com for, oh, your jazz lesson needs. Back to the show.

Well, let's go on in the next track. This is, I've got news for you. This was written by Roy Alfred, arranged by Ralph Burns. The band is screaming on this. Yeah. This is blues at as high as level. This is raw on this, right? No, that's still sunny thing.

I believe. Yeah. Yeah, there's Ralph Mc. Man. I don't know, though. You know why? They've got it as sunny thing. Those sounds sort of like Quincyisms.

Like diga-da-dee, dig-a-de-d-d-d- Right. Oh, instead of Ralph Burns? It says arrangement by Ralph Burns, but... Oh. That your life was... awful tame. Woo. Well, I took you to a nightclub.

And the whole band New York May, boy. That's a great line, too. It's true. That's a great line. He didn't make it up. I think this is cute. It does sound.

But I mean, no offense, Mr. Burns. Yeah, yeah. By the way. Right. Especially that better that. Can we just say, too? What a win for impulse.

For this to be their second album that they released. And we are looking up. And then you walked in smiling with your lipstick. Oh, the mess. Man. Could anybody sing a break like Ray Charles? Like, he went out of time. Like, his sense of time, he's just floating with its arms.

And the band, being able to be in that space, you know. It's so free. Your story don't rank you, little girl. I'm gonna trombones down in there. I love this right here. Like, how'd like to get from there? Let me get that beep off in there like quick. So there's a burden.

That sound is raw. I mean, it's like no problem. I was just going to say, you know what's so attractive about this? Hold on, hold on, hold on. This scream here is like, again with the bebop. I mean, they are pushing this tape to its edge. I know. Raise voices.

the organ is, but especially the band. It's on the edge of like screaming. Oh, my God. Uncle Joe inscription, it said, love. Come on now. I want to say I've got good for you. And they're swinging.

Wow. I love to think about, that's the second track. All the great vocalists have great screams. Yeah. Wow. So, raise is the most distinctive. But then you also have, obviously, James Brown. Right. Paul McCartney's got a decent scream, actually.

No, you didn't mention Paul McCartney. I know, he can't hold the candle. But it's, it is like... Try to slip it in. The wow, wow, kind of good stuff. Prince. Yeah, of course. Whole other, like, you know,

stratosphere and the voice of scream. Yeah. That screen at the end is... Michael Jackson. I'm just realizing, like, how... No, he's very influenced by Rachel. like, you can hear it in there. Michael's scream is more of a...

There's something more melodic about it. Yeah. But, I mean, that, no, I just want to talk about it. I want to get back to Ray the way he enters on that. It's stunning back. I'm still feeling that. But like that groove.

Oh, that's slow. Man, it's like, it's just straight tipping. But there's also this undertone of... That's right. They never do it. That's right. But like you feel that. Wow.

Which is why, you know, talking to younger musicians, when they play those kind of slow tempos, that's when I'm hearing, the triplet. Right. You know, so you mean, dang, jam, tan, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

There's some nasty stuff. onto it's simmering underneath. Right, right. That's how Elvin played. Yeah, oh, absolutely. But can we just listen to how, I just want to hear Rays, I know we got a lot of music to get through, but just the way he enters.

We might not get the whole album. We can do. We can go back. Let's get some more of that. You know, it's like almost distorting the... Yeah. It's like right on the end. Which is crazy because, like, the big man never...

Like, Rudy Vangel has got that under control. Like, he's got so much rain. And that never distort. But the organ entering just Still, but when Ray's Yeah, it's very dark. It's dirty, but it's like... Right.

When Ray comes in with the vocals, man. There's something about to weigh the time. It's like coming on. That your life was awful tame, you two a night. I mean, you can feel it. You can feel it underneath it the whole time. The whole time.

So, and it's like, and he's just, He's not out of time, but he's in like these other places. He's in the nook. Yeah. So good. Next up, we got... Oh, yeah. This is standard.

Yeah. Monen. But it was new then. I mean, like, he had... Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was... A couple of years old. Quincy did numerous arrangements of this.

He did it for this album. He did one for the bassy band, like just for the bassy band. He did one for his band. So there's at least like three or four different. Quincy Jones moaning arrangements. And there's a lot of overlap between Oh, a lot of overlap.

Yeah. This is Bobby Timmons Monon. Who? He's just like personalizing it from the beginning. Sloppy but funky. Slumpy. That's just a...

Woo! That's a very unique organ tone. Yeah. He changed up the sound of his second A, didn't he? Yeah. Woo. Don't don't. Yeah.

Another moment with the trumpets blow your head off. Come on trumpets. Woo. Killing bass sound, man. Damn. My mama don't told me. He's got him in there. That's right.

It's great. Great fall. In this one here. Is that Clark? Is that Clark? Phil Gilbally. That's a call back to the original recording. Right, right, right, yeah.

Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Sliding in. He's messing with the ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, this is so good. Come on trumpets. You know what we're going to mix that? We're going to mix that right on top. Yeah. Right on top. They're like, we're getting that organ above the man. Right.

Oh, that's great. Man, you don't hear a lot of. of Oregon big band albums anymore. No. I mean? Yeah. I had one. Yeah. Right. Obviously. Do you, wasn't there a James... Shout out to Joey D.

Yeah, Joey D. Wasn't there a James Brown? Was James Brown's Dance Party? What's the James Brown album? You would know this. If only we have... If only I had the world's foremost... The one where he's playing Oregon...

Oh, there's so many of those. I know, I know. I feel like there's one with a larger group, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway. Next up. There's one called, there's an instrumental record called J.B. plays nothing but soul. Ooh. Where he plays all, there's no, it's all organ.

Yeah. Wow. Awesome. All right. What do we got now? Let's go. Let's go. Roy Haynes is, actually Roe Haynes is on the next two tracks.

This is with the New York studio, hired legends. Right. I know Clark Terry is in this and Sarah Vaughn's rhythm section at that time with Joe Benjamin on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. And, you know, I had a chance to be around Mr. Haynes a whole lot. And he loved talking about this record. Oh, that's awesome. You know, I think if I'm not mistaken, this might be one of the most, you know, like you said, this was a billboard hit. Yeah.

You know. and to know that he was on like the number one R&B single of 1961, that's stuck in his brain forever. That's great. I'm on that. Yeah. Well, let's just talk about that real quick. I don't even think we've really gotten into it maybe before we started.

This album was number four on the Billboard top LPs, not that he was one men's julep, what you're going to get to was number one R&B. But this was on the top LPs, period, 48 weeks, period. And it went to number one. In 1961, like we think, oh, that's the big, this was not the big man era. This is a little bit like past when... This is right, that blurry period when you're coming out of the 50s

into the 60s, the Beatles had not arrived yet. But they were close. They were about three years off. But, you know, it was like the Sam Cook era. Yeah, that's right. Sinatra was getting hot all over again. Right. The girl groups.

Yeah. Yeah. But even Sinatra was a little up and down during this period. That's right. That's right. And I mean, even Motown wasn't really up and popping just yet. Right, that's right. They were still in the early, early stages.

And this was not like an expector or like what diehard. And look, Ray Charles had crossed over in a way that kind of had never been done for a black artist. Correct. I mean, it was definitely, he wasn't the first, but this was, he was huge. On that scale. On that scale. That's right. And so this was not exactly like a record that's like, oh, this is going to take him to the next level with white America.

It was not. Q organ. But yet it landed, number four. Yeah. Very interesting. Yeah. By the way, Ray is 30 making this album, 30 years old. Quincy is 27 years old making this album.

And then what is the... Okay, let's listen. But I want to... Because I know you probably know about the Seattle connection and all that, which I didn't even read. Which is fascinating. It's very fascinating. So this is... Just so far away.

You hear it one. That's that Woody Herman sound. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. Right. The other one didn't sound like... Was it? Bundering Herds.

That close voice thing in the saxophone. That's great. Haynes. Go ahead, Mr. Haynes. That's right by power. That's straight up by power. Doobitoo-Doo-Doo-Dee. You say right on the edge, right?

Yeah. I think that's, is that Billy Mitchell? Frank Foster. Ah. There we're going. It's like a bit... It's a big man... Chart with a little bit of Ray thrown in in between, you know?

That's what it is. I thought it was on ABC, though. Oh, well. That's the thing about this album, though. It's as much about this band and these arrangements than it is about Ray. I mean, obviously it's Ray's album, but, man, there's a lot of just featuring the band. Ray's coming in and just... And he's able to achieve what...

All the times I played big band... as a pianist, I don't know if you have this experience, it's like... You don't get to do much. And there's no space, so we usually just give up, we're like, fuck it, you know? But he does how to grab. They're like, ba-b-ba-da-ba-b-da-b-da-da-da-da. That's right. All loud and image.

Like, that's the template, actually. Like, how do you fit into a chart like that? It's fascinating, though. And I always, I also love that Ray was always very generous with big band arrangers. Because what's the album, the follow-up to this album, ingredients in a, oh, what's the name of that record? But, you know, he uses Benny Carter and Gerald Wilson as arrangers on that album.

And so he was always letting the arrangers shine. Yeah, well, it's obviously that's what he wanted. I mean, that way we're going to get out of here if it, you know, if he didn't want to be in the cracks, he would have been like, oh, lay out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. Side 8 closes with the number one R&B song from this album, Huge hit. One mint julep. This was written by Rudy Toombs. Rudy Tooms. Your favorite. Rudy Toombs.

Rudy Tooms. Never heard of him. This was arranged by Quincy. So not only did it go like number one in R&B, but it went number eight on the pop charts. Damn. This was a huge hit. Yeah. Used to be a great country, guys. I'm curious to how they described this. Like the groove. Yeah.

It's like they weren't calling it funk in 19. 61. Right. And it wasn't Bosal Nova. Right. But it's probably more like a cha-cha.

Chad, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Swinging 60s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's got a little... Tom? For the kick, maybe? Yeah. It's kind of a little Cuban. A little Cuban influence. Do that? Yeah.

Quincy with the 16thes. Oh, no. Tom. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Ha ha ha ha ha Hey

I set the tune for the 60s Come on It totally did Go on Roy Yeah he's pushing it I'm trying to think of other Of other Roy Haynes recordings That are anything quite like this

Right Is there? I mean later on Later on Yeah He was playing with train in 61 Yeah 62

So is this the only Ray Charles hit In which he basically sings One line Just a little bit of a song But how effective is that line? That's what I'm saying. Ray Charles to sing it too.

You're just kind of laying in the groove there for a couple minutes. And then Ray Charles gets in your ear. Yeah. Just one little line. That's right. And he's way back on that. He's like, yeah,

man. That's the classic. That's a classic. I mean, the band sings more than he does on that. There's more BGs. But you know that, I hate to say it,

but like, they really captured something there. Like some of these. He's like, that could have gone wrong. You know what I mean? Like that vibe and not wrong, but it could have not worked as well. It could have been chat. There's some magic in there.

Like the ah and all the bread. Everything is like so put together perfectly for that. And I think that's the combination of Ray and Quincy together. Yes, absolutely. Those two had, you know, Quincy always gave it up. So Ray, you know, helped him along the way how to arrange. Like literally he would sit him on the piano and be, here's what you do with your trumpets. Here's what you do with your trombones.

what you do with your saxophones, you know? And I think you can hear that those two just trusted each other so much through every collaboration that they did. Absolutely. I think the Roy Hainesness of that track, too, comes out listening to that, about, like, keeping it. I don't know, there's something about that hit that he does on that kick. It might have been a floor time. It sounded like a floor time.

Right, right, right, right. It's just, like, put in this perfect spot in this perfect way every single time. Right. Man. I mean, it's per- I mean, I wonder if we. We will know that feeling again. Like, we know that groove, you know, that sort of cha-cha groove within three to four years is going to turn into something completely different. It's going to be like, you know, straight out snare drum on two and four, bass drum, boom, tip, boom, cat, boom, cat, boom, cat.

Or branched off the other way in like a boogaloo kind of scenario or something. Yeah, but I mean, like at its most popular version, it would be like, you know, James Brown would take that. and go to the next stratosphere with that. But at that time, it was kind of like, hey, we're on the something here. I don't really know what it is, but we own to something. So, like, I wonder, you know, that feeling like, you know, you're doing something different, but you can't put your finger on it. And then a couple years later, you're like, oh, so that's what we were doing.

Wow. So is this kind of... We were pushing music forward. Is this like funk lineage? Because there wouldn't have been the worst funk yet, right? Big time, no, no. I mean, a couple of, you know, like I think Cannonball was using the word. Horace Silver was using the word.

But like, as a genre, no. We were about a decade away from that. Yeah. But, you know, the bass, boom, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. You know, playing the pattern or repeated pattern. Yeah. Most jazz cats were, I mean, I bet, I bet even Joe Benjamin was like, man, what is this? Where do I walk?

Chah, do you know? Cha, cha, cha. Oh, this is fascinating. But again, like, we were talking about just like the influence of Ray Charles. I mean, isn't he just, you know, for funk lineage? Yeah, right? I mean, the tastemaker.

The taste maker of that. The fact that this is on a Ray Charles album. Yeah. And like you said, he's got one line on this. This is not like, you know, some big sung, hit vocal feature for him, pop song kind of thing. But, man.

And they wound up being a number one hit. Right. Well, that kind of validates you if you're on to something normally. I mean, not in jazz. We run against that. We run away from that. We're like, oh, that's some sad. You mean people like it?

Don't do that again. Don't do that again. All right, the B side starts off with, I'm going to move to the outskirts of town. That's Clark Terry there. So here's where we, oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Here's where we nerd out a little bit because Quincy uses the double diminishing.

Oh, that's what you were playing over there, go. Yeah, exactly. I asked James Williams about this. I'm like, man, what does that sound? Yeah. It's like, come over to the piano. I'm going to move, baby. I love when Ray uses this as part of his voice, too.

The sort of, like, sweet high end of his voice, you know. You see, I don't. Come on double diminishes. Yeah. Oh, kill me. Let me tell you, honey. I move away from here. I don't need no ice man.

I'm going to get you a frigidale. And this is Roy Haynes on here. Right. Man, that is so locked in. Yes. Way out on the outskirts of town. Is there organ going on again? That's that double diminished when it goes up there.

Yeah. That was Haynes. That was Haynes. That was Haynes. No, big time. Rolls-Head 1-1. He is just padding. He's just padding underneath.

Oh, yeah. That bass trombone is almost like a keyboard. He was like, whoa. Yeah. Like a didgerid do. Right, right, right, right, right. Man, well, we're, the time is a little short, guys. If we were to listen to one more track here on the second side, Christian, what do you think?

What do you want to hear? I would go with, strike up the band. Okay. Just because I love how, you know, Ray, He be-bop's just enough to let you know he knows that language. This is a Gershwin tune to strike up the band, arranged by Quincy. This one sometimes feels more like Ralph Burns. Almost wonder if they...

They switch something. Yeah. Go on with the patterns, right? Yeah, right. It's speaking of the diminishes. Shappa-tupa. And this is funny, this isn't bebop language. Some of that stuff is like a little bit...

Tatum-esque there. Right, yeah. You know, Ron going up. Oh, so great. All right, guys, let's get to some categories here. Oh, yeah. Desert Island tracks. We must have to explain some of these stories.

Yeah, yes. If you were to take one track from this whole album to a Desert Island, which one? No, man. Really? I know. I know. The whole categories, Christian, are just terrible. I'll go first to give you a little vamp time.

I mean, moaning. I love that, especially from what I've heard so far. I loved raising. language there, his jazz, sensibility. I love that tune. I love that it was like a new kind of jazz standard and works great on the organ. I've got news for you.

I think it's the vocal performance on that is so great. The arrangement is so great. The energy of that song is so great. It's hard not to pick one mint julep because of the vibes, but I'm going to go with I've got news for you. I think I'd go with the opening track from the heart.

It's just such a fail-safe way to start an album. You know, that comes in just slamming, banging, the horns, the rhythm section, just the tempo, the language. You know, and it's also, you know, one of the tracks that made me want to start learning how to write for big bands.

Yeah, you know, I was going to ask you, I was like, after dive, started diving to this record, I was thinking about, because I've heard your big band recently a few times. and I know your records. I'm like, is this your favorite, like, period stylistically? I don't want to box you in, but like, or is this, it definitely sounds like it's the most influential,

like this type of writing, this type of vibe for Big Man. So in that piece I'd mentioned blues in an alphabet city, that was the first big band piece I ever composed. And I wrote it for the Jazz and Lincoln Center Orchestra in 1995. And at that time, I think a lot of my references were, like I mentioned, there was a little part and from the heart that I used. And there's also an old R&B hit from the same era by Jackie Wilson called Baby Workout. And there's a piece in that track that I probably referenced as well. So, yeah, I think early 60s, you know, Oliver Nelson's, you know, blues and abstract truth.

Right. I think all those cats who were writing for Big Man at that time, they just, it was just a really great time to be a Big Man arranger. And once I started getting into it more, and people like James Williams said, we'll get you some Thad Jones scores to study. But that's in the back of the book. Take some time before you start getting into that.

Right, right, right. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Quibble bits. If you had to quibble, any little. little bit of this. If there was anything you could change, just a small thing.

For me, I'm going to say it. The organ sound? I'm with you on that. I don't mind it some of the time. I wonder what do it sound like if it sounded more like Jimmy Smith. If it wasn't Ray Charles,

I'd be like, who in the hell approved this organ sound? Right, right. My only quibble bit is the way that this wonderful L.P. smells and the mold that's on you, buddy. The mold it's giving. That's your friend.

So I ordered this. I was so excited. You could have gone on the whistle name in Venice Rino. But so, you know, but it's like I wanted to get something. And this is original, which I'm excited about. Yeah. I was more concerned I wanted to be able to see the, you know, because I'll, well, first all, this is a, this is not available as far as you know.

And you can sit, maybe in another country you can put in the comments. As far as we can tell, it's not available currently on Spotify, on Apple Music or on Apple iTunes, which is where we usually let's go for original sourcing and buy the tracks. So I wanted to have it for that. But man, this thing smells like a dusty mess, man. I'm a little bit. I'm not really high. What's the opposite?

I'm down, I'm up. I don't know. I don't know what these toxic fumes are. Yeah, I hope you'll have to go to the doctor. Your quibble bit with this album is that you bought an old, dank copy. That's your quibble bit? But look at the condition. This is damn good condition.

That's pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of worth it. Anybody else got a quibut? Well, you guys agreed on your group. Just a Oregon sound. I would agree on that. Well, let's stick with the album, Akutramas.

So cover. I mean, the title. This is one to ten. Ten is greatest ever. We were talking about how you know. Ray is as an artist, right? How influential, how genius he is. Is there anybody else who can get away

with so many album titles having geniuses? I know. No one's got a problem with him. It's like, yeah, nobody's mad at him. You can't be like he's not. Yeah, I mean, I give this a nine. And the only reason I'm not giving it as a 10, I'm almost like, because you include the title,

I think the design of the cover, I love, you know, Ray. And it's almost like, you know, he's slightly out of focus, but even more, like, Boca in the front. I think this is brilliant. The saxophone, like the color, even like the sticker, this album contains this. I mean, what a time when you're like,

put the hit on there. So they know what they're coming. You gotta let people know. Impulse, this is classic. Even what's shocking to me is, this is, as you said, A2 for impulse, but they already had their design chops. It looks like an impulse. Big time. Produced by Cree Taylor with the signature.

How many times did we see that? You know, all the way to CTI. But I think the only reason I give it a nine is like, should the title have been genius plus jazz equals soul. You know, could have been.

That sounds like a quibble bit. That is a little bit of a quibble bit, but it's great. I got eight. I have an eight. I think it's really,

really good. Like you said, the impulseness of the packaging is already there. Yeah. And I love this, these impulse albums, too,

from the early 60s. Like, all the McCoy stuff. This really is starting to affect me. I was joking. Keep it. I'm starting to worry, my bad. Christian,

welcome to our to our senior guest. Also, by the way, the liner notes and the detail, I mean, I know we say this every time we have, I'm sorry, I won't open it up. I want to keep it over it.

But every time we have the vinyl out, which is almost every episode at this point, it's just like, why are we choosing to go away from this? I know. You know what I mean? And look at that picture. And, like, seeing the picture. And, like, seeing the picture of waiting. And, like, passing it to Peter, watching him almost pass out.

It's fantastic. But having just every, just knowing who's playing on. I know. Right. Even though apparently some of it's wrong. Yeah. Yeah. I'd happen.

I would give it a nine. Nine. Yeah. I don't know why I wouldn't give it a 10, but I think probably because most impulse records, particularly the artwork, is just as great as the music. Right.

I agree. You know, I think Rudy, you know, somehow people, when you think of the sound of Blue Note records, obviously Rudy and Blue Note are intertwined with each other forever. But I think Rudy's sound on Impulse Records, I mean Yeah Well we've said on the pod before

Several times I think in general his piano Because I'm not a huge fan of the Rudy Piano sound But it's more on the Bluno On the Impulse I think it's Fantastic I mean obviously there's no piano on this

But I mean in general You know And prestige You know I mean I think a lot I think part of that was The Blunonness of it all But Yeah

And there's a vibe on those impulse records Yeah Do you guys think about Album art as you're making the album, I mean, I'm sure you're both involved in it when it's, you know, when it's being done, but do you ever consider that as it's happening,

and you just let it kind of... While it's happening? Yeah. I don't know about while it's happening. I think once it's done and you take it all in, then you kind of go, all right. What do we got here? Right, right.

Yeah. Yeah. Come back to me. I don't have mine yet. Christian, what do you go? What's your favorite moment of this whole album? Oh, man. Probably that scream the whole band makes on the, I've got news for you. That's pretty great. I mean, that is nuts.

That is insane. Also, the way it's recorded. If I had hair, it would have blown it off, right? The way it's recorded feels like it takes up the entire room that you're listening to it. That's right. Like, it's like all of a sudden, the room is just filled with horns. Right. Right.

Yeah. And, you know, even here, like these speakers here, it's like you almost feel like they're there. Yeah. You can see the brass in front of you, you know. Yeah, the production engineering on this, besides the quibble bits about maybe the organ stuff is stunning. Actually, this is some of the best big band recordings in the studio I've heard. I'm actually amazed. I would say my apex moment is Ray's entry on, I've got news for you.

I could come back to that and just, like, and there's so many, like, levels to it. I think you could explore that are just so fascinating. The feel of what he's doing. Yeah. Obviously how he's singing everything, one of the greatest voices in music history. But the rhythmic freedom and attenuation. But like you said, you can feel that pulse happening

a whole time under all those breaks. Yeah. And I think you're right. Maybe greatest breaker. Not breaker. Yeah, yeah. The greatest vocal breaks. The greatest vocal breaks of all time.

Yeah. Okay. What's your apex? Oh, man, you know what it is? It's on the one-minute julep. every single ah and the just a little soul. I know it's stupid and little,

but those little moments, I think that's why that was such a huge hit. That was Roy Han's favorite moment. It just pulls you in. Just a little bit of soul. Because you like lean in a little bit. You know what I mean? And it just breaks it up.

I just think it's really, really nice. Snobometer, how snobby is this album from a scale of one to 10? One being it's not snobby at all. It's very accessible. Anybody would like it to 10 being like, that's going to take some listening to.

Probably a one. I've got two. I've got a two. I've got a two. Are you serious? Okay, first of all, just so you know, we have a lot of disagreements. The only time we agree,

because the snobometer is broken, first of all. It's totally broken. It doesn't make sense. I don't even know why we do it. The reason I'm saying 10 is, first of all, Christian McBride brought in an album today that's not on Spotify or on Apple Music

or on iTunes or anything. Like, there's a certain snob level to that. Although it was number four, yeah. But it was also number four on the pop charts and a number one R&B hit. So how snobby could be? So I could be off on that. But I just want to throw it down. I'll allow it.

I mean, partially that's because, you know, by this time, Ray Charles owned his own master's. And I think even to this day, most of his post-Atlantic recordings, can't find a lot of them. That's a real shame. When do we get blocked on this episode? We've got to talk about that later. Oh, goodness.

We might. We might. Okay, up next. So I'm going to go boring here. Like if you were to put together what would play after this, I'm going to say modern sounds and country and western music. And I'm just going to go right. Oh, that's killer.

Another great album. Yeah. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of... Bye-bye love. There's some kinship here where you can hear some. I mean, it's obviously two whole different vibes, right? Yeah. What do you got, people?

I'm going to go someday my prince will come. I know. Same year. Miles Day. Because it came out the same year. I always like to think about like different things. that are happening and then because a lot of times

like that's how I'll like and this is definitely a record I'm looking forward to taking home sterilizing fully setting out on the back porch and then bringing into my home and listening to it like I love it then turn it over. And then like if I want to hear more music I usually want to go to something else but it's fun to be like damn that

this was all 1961 right I love something everybody. Well if you look in you know impulse records calendar booklet from that time they probably did Africa Brass not long after this. Wait, didn't Haynes on some of that?

I thought that was Elvin on the whole album. He might be on some of the sessions, but... But he was with Train a little bit around, like when Elvin wasn't available. That's crazy that he did. So I say, let's follow that up with... That's killing. That's incredible.

No, and it's like the times when, like, I mean, we still remember just a little bit when the label would be like, next week, what's coming out? Next month. You have a little insert for it. It's so cool, man. I missed those. Oh, yeah, that's great.

Okay, while he's looking at up, we're going to move next. Oh, Bespoke Playlist. So this is like, what would, if this was on... Elvin on everything. That was Elvin. Yeah, that's what I thought. That's a killing of record, too. Oh, yeah.

Oh, man, Africa. Bunkoo-Dinco-Ding. That's Jim McArris. That's Art Davis. Oh, Archie Workman. That's right, right. Bespoke playlist. This is like, if it was on Spotify, what would it be part of?

I've written something that I can't read right. now. Those are my favorites. I got one. Okay. And this is just on the genius front. Genius plus genius equals genius. Come on.

Ooh. Oh, okay. I don't know what else is in the playlist, but other geniuses, I would assume? Yeah. Okay. That's not my best work. No, no, sorry. I wasn't actually listening to what you were saying for a minute, my bad.

What do you got, Peter? I have S-T-R-E-A, and I don't remember why I wrote that or what that means. Sorry. I'm just being honest. Stray. Stray-A. I don't know. Do you got anything Christian on that?

Like a playlist? Yeah. What could we call it? Let me see. Something with soul or funk in there because it's like this is a jazz record by all means.

Yeah. But it's also a soul record. It's also a funk record. You know, before anybody was calling at that. Yeah. So, you know... The seeds of soul? Funk before it was called funk.

Funk before. Yeah, I like it. I like it. Last question? Is it better than Miles Davis's kind of blue? Oh, come on, man. No one ever wants answered. Did we, I saw Ashley Kahn who, you know, wrote the book on Kind of Boo.

And he was like very... We thought it would be funny. We thought he would laugh. He was just like, that's a stupid question. He was like, I don't think about music like that. Yeah, he was like, well, you wrote the book on it. Fair enough. Well, do you have a podcast?

He got all serious. He was super jovial right up to that. It was when I was in Duport. The last time we were at Duport. I think it's so different. I don't think there's, I think it's like... Oh, don't shy away now because Mr. McBride is it. I'm going to say no.

I'm just saying no. Yeah, I mean... It's a great record. I just... I don't think it's better than Carylby. But I've said many things are, so I want you to think... I'm quiet over on this. I mean, it depends on what you're in the mood for.

Yeah. What's what I'm saying? Good, good, good. I think it kind of blues a more balanced meal. This is kind of heavy on the carbs. Right. The carbs being... Vibratoly...

Crunchy as organ. I mean, carbs, we need to live. Hello. That's right. It could be a lot. Yeah. Well, Chris McBride, it must be said that we did have like six James Brown albums, but I was delighted when you pick this one.

This is a great poll. We're so glad to listen to this with you today. It's been a pleasure and a pleasure. We'll have you back for James Brown if you want. Or whatever else. Or surprise us with something. Yeah, I'll come up with like some Hank Williams album next night. That would be really fun.

That would be really fun. And you can catch Christian McBride. Go to Christian Macbryde.com. I was joking earlier. He has one of those artist sites that actually does not say, copyright 1997 on it. Like mine. Actually, mine is offline right now. I have to pay my name.

Oh, man. No, I don't know. But you can catch him live, catch his excellent podcast, The Lowdown, Sirius X-M, the Christian McBride, big band, all of his wonderful projects. He's got 11 Grammys, so he knows what's up. So, thank you, sir. Until next time. Thank you, bro.

Yeah, until next time. You'll hear it. You'll hear it. Thank you.