Comparison Between Ray Charles and B.B King - Assignment Example

Comparison between Ray Charles and B.B King Music is one of the most celebrated careers in the world. Artists do not only entertain the society but also teach or influence social perceptions. Ray Charles and B. B. King are musicians that have demonstrated their ability in music by influencing the society and leaving a landmark in the music industry. Rays Charles’s early life was fully of challenges; born during great depression, September 23, 1930, became blind at age seven, and endured discriminations (Swing Music Net 1). He died in 10 June 2004. Lovers of Charles believe he led his life as hero and left a landmark of heroism. His counterpart B. B. King is on the lists of the celebrated musicians because of the influence he has left in the life of the musicians and the society alike. King’s early life was full of challenges but his songs are iconic to the society today. Born in a dysfunctional family, September 16, 1925, he began to endure the challenges right from age four when his father rejected his mother. He grew in the hand of his grandmother and borrowed much of his artistic styles from music legends such as Jefferson. The essay compares the work of B.B. King and Ray Charles. Ray Charles and B.B. King perform variety of music genre, which include gospel, jazz, blues and rock, blues (Mike 131). This attribute is unlike other musicians that stick to single music genre demonstrated legendary ability in music. The characteristics of music performance differ with music genres. Some musicians are only able to perform a given genre of music. Critics of B.B. King and Charles Ray believe they displayed great talent by crisscrossing music genre paths. Although they both displayed the above characteristic, it occurred in different time line. Ray began his music career at the age of 15. He began the career by playing piano for bands at night for as little as $4. Ray working with a friend Quincy Jones produced his first hit blues in 1949. The hit titled ‘Confession Blues’ was position two in R&B chart. Ray noticed that his name could not sell well because people could easily confuse him with Sugar Ray Robinson who was a boxer. The challenge made him drop the name Robinson. Working under the name Ray Charles in 1951, he produced more R&B under the album title Swing Times Records. The hits under the above title that influenced the society included Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand. He also worked on R&B production in 1951 where he produced Kissa Me Baby, which was number eight in the R&B countdown. In 1953, Ray changed his performance from R&B to boogie-woogie, jump blues, and moved to Atlantic Records. He stopped his earlier contract with the Swing Times. During this time, Ray demonstrated vocal production by producing ballad blues, which has a characteristic of slow music. While working under the umbrella of Atlantic records he produced his first hit Mess Around in 1953. A notable hit that Ray produced in 1954 was ‘I Got A Woman’ which became number bone in the R&B chart. Notably, the song combined secular setting and gospel setting. Combining the two setting and producing a perfect work had not appeared to musicians before. This great combining of secular and gospel tendencies gave rise to the famous soul hits (Hage 121). He did not only devised secular and gospel setting combination, but also emotionalised the songs. Singing with emotion is more of dramatic performance than musical; however, Ray did demonstrate the above attribute influencing his audience and later musicians who illuminated his style of performance. Ray pattern of R&B performance was unique throughout 1955 where his early combination of secular setting and gospel setting mixed with the Jazz setting. His records such as Lonely Avenue and This Little Girl of Mine are a revelation of the great combination. Many critics believe the above successful combination changed musical tendencies of late 1950s (Hage 41). Ray did not stop after the great secular and gospel combination, he went ahead to recruit a team which helped him to produce a jazz music in 1958. During this time, Ray played musical instruments such as alto saxophone, reed instrument, among others. The Jazz performance brought genius figures such as David Newman, and vocal backups Crawford Bennie, Belgrave Marcus and Harper Lee (Pendel 87). The jazz performance was successful, however, Ray did not settle to practice the jazz alone. He was still active in writing and singing R&B. What’d I Say is a hit that combined the production techniques of different settings. However, many critics have observed that the lyrics of the song had powerful sex message necessitating a ban. The song gain popularity in Europe and the US with many parties opting to listen to the song. Charles did not stop crisscrossing music genre with jazz; he went ahead in 1960s to perform pop music. He also performed in concerts where he demonstrated his live performances. He has influenced the lives of musicians such as James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Otis Redding among others (Hage 112). His performances did not only appear in theatre halls, he also performed in TV and films, performing in public places and travelling overseas. He has won numerous awards for his sterling performances, which rocked the American world and the globe at large. B.B. King’s music performance has stunned American music industry and beyond. The characteristic of King’s performance is what has made his name flourish in the music industry. He is among the pioneer of sophisticated soloing while playing a guitar (Pence 115). This style of performance is quite stunning owing to the fact that some musicians are only able to play or sing at a time. This attribute is a rare combination, although it comes out perfectly. King recorded his first song with RPM records in 1946 (Pence 135). His early performance was R&B genre. He performed in theatres as well as restaurants where he entertained his audiences. In 1950s, King’s R&B songs were trending well in the American R&B charts. His hits such as ‘3 O’clock Blues still lingers in the minds of his fans. King did not stick to one recording company, he often moved from one recording company to the other. He left RPM records and joined Bullet Records. In 1950s, King signed a contract with ABC Paramount Records. King has demonstrated that he changes his recording company whenever need be. However, the trend is a common phenomenon with musicians. King is among the top one hundred guitarists known for awesome performance. King performance and music attribute has influenced the lives of Jimi Hendrix who believe the guitar performance displayed by King is a great influence to his music career (Lyndon 122). Eric Clapton asserts that King’s music performance is hard to fake because of skills displayed in the performance (Weissman124). Musicians usually face the challenge of piracy in which the pirated piece would fetch much in the market than the original piece. King’s success in R&B has not waived because he has held to guitar and soloing style of performance since the beginning of the music career. His critics have remarked that King’s attribute to music performance has remained philosophical since he began his career. A review into King’s music career indicate that the conviction of King as a southern black prohibited him from performing R&B because the perception of the blacks at that time was that R&B genre promoted evil (devil’s music). This notion promoted King to perform gospel music in church. He marks that it was against his principles to disrespect his father or his stepmother. He sang gospel music with ST John Gospel singers before making a move to sing secular pieces. In 1960s, King concentrated in singing blues making his black supporters feel abandoned. The change of performance was a challenge especially when his black people felt he performed to please the whites. Initially, blues satisfied the taste of the whites as opposed to the whites. However, he did not swing from the choice he had made. Music career of King in 60s and early 70s was dedicated to rock music (Lydon 41). During this period, King did not perform alone, but he enjoyed the support of rock musicians such as Joe Walsh, Carol King, and Leon Russell. The team did not only make the stage performance colourful, but also created an atmosphere of enjoying rock music. Notably, King did not leave his guitar when performing in these occasions. King has won several awards due to his inspirational work. He is notable for dedicating his career to serve the community among them performing in paroles. The national heritage award is among many awards that King has won for his performance. King did not only stick to blues composition and performance, but he also mixed his tunes with gospel making his combination known for the modern pieces. Ideally, changing genres or mixing secular and gospel or gospel with jazz or blues is quite technical, but King working with other rock stars introduced such trends in his music and managed to stage-perform the same. In both cases, Ray and King have demonstrated great musical skills through vocal production to playing instrument. Ray specialised in playing piano while King demonstrate great ability in playing guitar. The vocal production of King commands most of his art pieces throughout his career life. On the other hand, Ray have successfully mixed with Jazz performers, used his talents to play a number of instruments, which include saxophone, reed instrument and piano. The two musicians have brought new creations to R&B genre with Ray composition giving rise to soul hits (Kostelanetz 146). Notably, the contribution that the two musicians have made in the music industry came during different times. While Ray music career had projected a rare combination in 1950s, King applied similar patterns in his music in 1960s and 1970s (Amos 1). Performance in the theatre is a common trend used by these musicians over time. Ray and King did not only perform in the United States but travelled overseas to entertain their audiences. This trait is common with many musicians; however, King and Ray could not just avoid doing it. The two artists influence in the music industry is evident through music productions, which immolate similar trend observed in the music styles. The advent of soul music is a revelation of a stunning performance, which combines attributes of various music cultures. Jazz performance makes use of percussion instruments, string instruments and flutes as well as vocal production. Successful crisscrossing from one genre to the other is an attribute that Ray displayed effectively (Ferris 123). This attribute has influenced a number of musicians including Stevie Wonder. However, he did not forget his initial performances in R&B. Notably, the pattern of music performance displayed by Charles and King was unique, during their time and would remain to rock the world of music. In conclusion, Ray and B.B. King are musicians who have not only demonstrated that they could compose and sing music, but also could make good use of music instrument to prove their talents. Ray blind from childhood was successful in production and performance of R&B, gospel, blues, rock, pop and jazz. Ray crisscrossed music platform moving from one genre to other while displaying great talent. Similarly, King displayed great talent in both vocal production and instruments. He sang greatly while playing his guitar. He successfully combined his music performance with popular pop artists to create great pieces of R&B. The pieces have demonstrated that he could combine ideas successfully with others to produce a great piece. Not withstanding, these artists introduced the pattern of combining settings of more than one music genre to produce a piece. Work cited Amos, Julie-Ann. BB KING - Real Guitar Hero - Guide to The Worlds Best Guitarists. Web 1 May 2012 http://julieannamos.hubpages.com/hub/BB-KING---Real-Guitar-Hero---Guide-to-The-Worlds-Best-Guitarists Ferris, R. William. Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues: Volume 1. Carolina: Univ of North Carolina Press. 2009. Print. Hage, Erik. The Words of Music Van Morrison. New York: ABC-CLIO. 2009. Print. Kostelanetz, Richard. The B. B. King reader: 6 decades of commentary. Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation. 2005. Print. Lydon, Michael. Flashbacks: Eyewitness Accounts of the Rock Revolution, 1964-1974. London: Routledge. 2003. Print. Mike, Evans. Ray Charles: The Birth of Soul. Sydney: Music Sales Group. 2007. Print. Pence, Charlotte. The Poetics of American Song Lyrics. Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi. 2011. Print. Randel, R. Don. The Harvard Dictionary of Music. New York: Harvard University Press. 2003. Print. Swing Music Net. Ray Charles. Web 1 May 2012 http://www.swingmusic.net/Ray_Charles_Biography.html Weismann, D. Blues: The Basics. London: Routledge. 2005. Print. Read More