There are few narratives that the entertainment industry loves better than success in adversity, and Ray Charles' life and career provided the industry with more than his fair share of highs and lows.

Ray Charles' early life was marred by tragedy: he witnessed his younger brother drown and then began to go blind, aged just five. Sent as a charity case to a school for blind and deaf children, his mother died while he was away. But the St Augustine School for the Deaf and the Blind equipped him with skills for life: not only did it teach him how to read Braille, he also learnt to write music and to play the piano. He developed a unique style, mixing blues and gospel songs with secular lyrics, and niche and mainstream success followed, but with it came a seventeen-year heroin addiction. In the finest Hollywood tradition however he came back, and the success of his last album and the recent Oscar-winning biopic, Ray starring newcomer Jamie Foxx, bears testament to his enduring popularity.

Often controversial, (on his death he left twelve children by seven different women), Ray Charles was a pioneering musician who Frank Sinatra called 'the only genius in the business'. Our concert is from 2000, when he celebrated his 70th birthday, 50 years on the stage and '40 years after the Olympia' in 1960 he was booked to perform two concerts at the Paris Olympia but such was their success, he stayed for a fortnight and also features his Trio in a unique recording.