{"id":5350,"date":"2014-01-02T12:18:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T20:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=5350"},"modified":"2014-01-02T12:18:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T20:18:30","slug":"ray-charles-slow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2014\/01\/ray-charles-slow\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray Charles, Slow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Ray-Charles-74.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Ray-Charles-74.jpg\" alt=\"Ray Charles &#039;74\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Ray-Charles-74.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Ray-Charles-74-70x70.jpg 70w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a>There seems to be a Ray Charles aura abroad in 2014; several <em>Rifftides<\/em> readers have called my attention to a remarkable 1974 performance by Charles, his band and the Raelets. The headline on the clip reads, <strong>Ray Charles Plays the Slow Blues in Madrid<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Slow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t begin to describe the tempo. At roughly 30 beats to the minute, a 12-bar chorus takes about a minute and a half. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the point. The point is the depth of Charles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s distillation of blues feeling. Be sure to stay for the other-worldly coda that he coaxes out of his Fender-Rhodes. <\/p>\n<p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"440\" height=\"355\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UIGoqv8zlRE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><p>The acoustic pianist behind Charles was Ernie Vantrease. The guitarist is not identified. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There seems to be a Ray Charles aura abroad in 2014; several Rifftides readers have called my attention to a remarkable 1974 performance by Charles, his band and the Raelets. The headline on the clip reads, Ray Charles Plays the Slow Blues in Madrid. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Slow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t begin to describe the tempo. At roughly 30 beats [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}