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Label:
  Concord Records - http://www.concordrecords.com/
Serial:
  SACD-1033
Title:
  Ray Charles: Genius Loves Company
Description:
  "Genius Loves Company"

Ray Charles
Natalie Cole
Elton John
Norah Jones
B.B. King
Gladys Knight
Diana Krall
Johnny Mathis
Michael McDonald
Van Morrison
Willie Nelson
Bonnie Raitt
James Taylor
Track listing:
  1. Here We Go Again (with Norah Jones)
2. Sweet Potato Pie (with James Taylor)
3. You Don't Know Me (with Diana Krall)
4. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (with Elton John)
5. Fever (with Natalie Cole)
6. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? (with Bonnie Raitt)
7. It Was A Very Good Year (with Willie Nelson)
8. Hey Girl (with Michael McDonald)
9. Sinner's Prayer (with B.B. King)
10. Heaven Help Us All (with Gladys Knight)
11. Somewhere Over The Rainbow (with Johnny Mathis)
12. Crazy Love (with Van Morrison)
Genre:
  Vocal
Content:
  Stereo/Multichannel
Media:
  Hybrid
Recording type:
 
Recording info:
 

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Reviews: 10 show all

Review by eesau January 16, 2005 (7 of 7 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
The material in this album is typical for this kind of multi-performer collections that have many times been done for marketing reasons only. I personally don't like this approch because the performers seldom are at their best on these records. The same happended with many late recordings of John Lee Hooker, too. This record is, however, a sort of a tribute to Ray Charles and not really so bad after all. And it is touching to hear him sing about death in "it was a very good year" together with Wille Nelson.

I'm a multi-channel freak. Two two channel mix is OK but the multichannel version is just terribly bad. I have about 75 multichannel records and this is the worst multi-channel SACD of them all. Typically only the DTS-multichannel records have achieved this level of poorness.

And why? Because they have mixed Ray to the left hand side so that his voice is in between the center channel and the left channel and there is some kind of an echo on the rear left channel, too. The partner in duet is in mixed between the right channel and center channel and an echo comes from the right rear channel only. The result is just weired. I cannot listen to the multichannel mix it at all.

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Review by progboy March 27, 2012 (3 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Usually these duet-type albums don't really work for me......and this one is kind of really in that league. I love the line up and the song selection and of course Ray but I think this one would have been way more magical had it been 10 years earlier......

Sadly this collection is really far away from the genius of lets say "Charles and Carter" or "Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music". Ray sings best he can as his health was failing and he had lost that magic really in his voice by the recording of these duets. The great news is that the orchestration and instrumentation is amazing and all his guests sound excellent and alive. It is really just the flat and unimaginative voice of Ray that makes this a good but not excellent album.

Ray sounds like his dentures were not fitting as snug as they could have during these recordings!

However the sound is quite good and i think the SACD really brings out some of the magic that this album strives but sadly never reaches....

Definitely not an essential SACD nor and essential Ray Charles album to own but if like me you can find it cheap then I'd say go for it.......

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Review by Marc P October 1, 2004 (3 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Well what can I say about this one? Ray Charles surely is one of the greats. And so are many of his guests on this album. That should mean a great album, but does it?
As far I as am concerned I does not. This album always seems to be interesting but never gets to be great. Sound quality is good but never exciting and at times even very dull.
Sure I will play this album because it’s good background album and my girlfriend seems to like it. But it isn’t what I was hoping for.

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