Rhino / Wea
2005
Genius & Friends
About This Album
Atlantic/Rhino's 2005 Genius and Friends is the end result of a project Ray Charles initiated a few months before his death in June 2004. According to James Austin's liner notes, Charles called Austin in December of 2003, asking if he could find the masters to an unreleased duets record Ray recorded in 1997 and 1998. Austin found the tapes, but Charles was too sick to work on them, so after his passing -- and after his final studio album, the duets record Genius Loves Company, became a number one hit in August of 2004 -- Atlantic/Rhino decided to finish off the project, bringing in producer Phil Ramone to oversee the completion of the album. This included bringing in singers to record their parts, since apart from two tracks -- a 1994 duet with Diana Ross on "Big Bad Love" and a live 1991 version of "Busted" with Willie Nelson (taken from the television special Ray Charles: 50 Years in Music) -- these are all studio constructions, with vocalists duetting with a previously recorded Ray. While not quite the monstrosity it could have been -- posthumous duets albums like this always bear an unsettling ghoulish undertow -- Genius and Friends is also not a particularly good album either.
Track List (try tracks 1,6,10,12 and 13)

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