CHARLES, Ray - SALOU, Michel (photo.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Pair of original carbon prints of Charles in concert. Stunning portraits of the man who "re-shaped American music for half a century" (New York Times obituary). These date from his sensational standing-room-only Paris concerts of 1961."With 'Hit the Road' still at its peak, Ray and the gang took off again for Europe. First Zurich and Lyons, which none of them remembered, then Paris, which none of them ever forgot. In Paris, October 1961, Ray Charles triumphed in a way that few artists live to enjoy. At thirty-one, the full height of his manhood, he stormed and captured the heart of the rose-grey city on the Seine. For old-time jazz lovers like Maurice Cullaz, president of the Jazz Academy, Ray's triumph recalled Louis Armstrong's and Duke Ellington's European debuts in the 1930s" (Evans, p. 205)The photographer, Michel Salou, worked as a music executive, producing albums by, among others, Sun Ra (Live in Paris at the "Gibus", 1973), the Mal Waldron Trio (Ursula, 1978), and the French pianists George Arvanitas and Rene Urtreger. He also appears in the annals of the Art Ensemble of Chicago as their "first booking agent... who helped them secure concert dates across France and elsewhere in Europe" (Steinbeck, p. 130). His excellent work as a lensman appears to have gone virtually unnoticed, except that the National Portrait Gallery holds a single print of Ray Charles in performance.

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