The Father of Soul Music

Ray Charles Robinson was born in 1930 in Georgia USA. but he grew up in Florida. He lived with his mother, Aretha, and his younger brother. They were very poor. When Ray was five years old, his brother died and then two years later Ray went blind. Aretha Robinson sent her son to St Augustine’s, a school for blind children, He studied classical music there.

When Ray was fourteen, his mother died and he left school. For two years he played the piano with some local bands to earn the money for a bus ticket to Seattle. There he played in clubs and bars. He didn’t earn a lot of money, but he loved music.
‘Music,’ he said, ‘was like food or water for me.’

At first he sang songs by other famous singers, but he soon created a new kind of music. He used blues, jazz, country, and gospel music and he created ‘soul music’. He changed his name to Ray Charles, and by 1955 the poor black boy from Florida was rich and famous.
He gave a lot of his money to schools for blind black children. His life also had a dark side. He took heroin for many years. He was married and divorced twice and had twelve children.

In 1988, a film director, Tarlor Hackford, started planning a film about the singer’s life. He Called it Ray. The film’s star, Jamie Foxx, won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2005. Sadly Ray Charles wasn’t there. He died in June 2004 at the age of 73.