Ray Charles Live in Edmonton

The great R'n'B singer in concert in a concert of his most popular hits from Canada, backed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

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'.

See him here on smooth, effortless form in concert in Canada, ably supported by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Included are many of Charles' best loved tracks such as Busted, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, I Can't Stop Loving You and Take These Chains From My Heart in a sparkling performance.