He may well have started out as a Nat Cole-Charles Brown copyist, but once he found his own voice, Ray Charles quickly became one of the most influential of all 20th Century recording artists. Stateside, Brother Ray not only blended gospel and blues into a new form of popular music, but his small group instrumental albums which highlight his distinctive piano pumping (The Great Ray Charles and The Genius After Hours) directly informed the front line hard bop/soul jazz combos of Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley and many others.

Blessed with a powerful, almost Biblical voice that sounded a thousand years old, Brother Ray also mesmerised a whole generation of UK blue-eyed soul boys spearheaded by Stevie Winwood, Steve Marriott, Van Morrison, Georgie Fame and Eric Burdon who, in turn, sold the hybrid results back to the U.S.

A prolific recording artist, much thought has been applied in selecting these five albums from Ray's early years on Atlantic to produce a coherent five-album package.

With the release of The Genius Of Ray Charles, some of the rough edges may have been smoothed out but the passion still remained intact as an all-star a big band that included Clark Terry, Zoot Sims and a contingent of Basie's boys romped through arrangements supplied by Quincy Jones, Ralph Burns and others.

The Genius Sings The Blues collection echoes his earlier Club blues style (check out ‘The Midnight Hour’) as does the all-instrumental ‘After Hours’ which hails from the same sessions. However, it's the eight rough 'n’ ready selections that comprise the 1958 Live At Newport (a must-have UK release) that prove to be the most revealing with ‘The Right Time’, ‘I Got A Woman’, Talkin’ 'Bout You’ and ‘A Fool For You’ offering a snapshot of an excitable Ray Charles operating in his own comfort zone backed by his regular instrumental six-pack featuring tenor man David ‘Fathead’ Newman and the Raylettes in call-and-response mode.