Ray Charles - Ray Charles Live in Concert [2LP]

Ray Charles Live in Concert finally stretches out to the full show across two LPs, the complete 1964 performance at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

The original album, released in 1965, had to be trimmed to fit a single disc, leaving some of the night's best moments on the cutting-room floor. Recorded just after a tour of Japan, the concert finds Ray leading his big band and holding the room in the palm of his hand, moving between jazz, blues, gospel fervour and country with complete ease. Here the night unfolds in full, song by song.

Brassy instrumentals such as "One Mint Julep" warm up the band before Ray digs into a six-minute "I Gotta Woman" that turns into a full call-and-response revival. "Georgia on My Mind", missing from the original album, becomes a long, slow-burning showstopper, and "Makin' Whoopee" shows off his sly comic timing. The horns punch hard, the rhythm section swings with real snap, and the crowd is right there with him from the first note to the last.

For soul and R&B fans, this is the definitive way to hear one of the great live records of the 60s. Two discs give the performance the space it always needed.