The Great Ray Charles

The Great Ray Charles is the second studio album by American musician Ray Charles, released in 1957 by Atlantic Records. An instrumental jazz album, it features cover art designed by Marvin Israel. Later CD re-issues of The Great Ray Charles often include six out of the eight songs from the 1961 album The Genius After Hours, as bonus tracks.

Release
The Great Ray Charles was released by Atlantic Records in August 1957. Due to frequent airplay of two tracks off the album, "Doodlin" and "Sweet Sixteen Bars", Atlantic released those two tracks as an EP later that same year.

Original LP release
Note: Some sources list "Ain't Misbehavin" in place of "Black Coffee".

Personnel

 * Ray Charles – celesta, piano
 * Oscar Pettiford, Roosevelt Sheffield – bass
 * Joe Harris, William Peeples – drums
 * David "Fathead" Newman – alto and tenor saxophone
 * Emmot Dennis – baritone saxophone
 * Joe Bridgewater – trumpet, soloist
 * John Hunt – trumpet
 * Technical
 * Earle Brown, Tom Dowd – recording engineer
 * Marvin Israel – design
 * Lee Friedlander – cover photography