Ray Charles: Early Life and Music Career, Study notes of Music

Download Ray Charles: Early Life and Music Career and more Study notes Music in PDF only on Docsity! PHOTO: NORMAN SEEFF Early Life Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia. His parents were Aretha and Bailey Robinson. Ray was a very smart boy. Before the age of five he knew how to play the piano. Around then came something the Robinson family thought would never happen. His younger brother, at the age of four, drowned in his mother’s washtub. Ray tried to save him, but already going blind and only five, he couldn’t. After this happened, and after ray went blind because of glaucoma , his mother and father decided it was best for him to go to a school for the blind. While attending Florida school for the deaf and blind his mother and father died. This left him a poor blind orphan, though he used what he learned at school to earn money. Soon later, Ray began to sign contracts, and his career began.