Page 6 Portland O bserver A p ril 11, 1990
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ENTERTAINMENT
Krawd Kontrol: Another Home
Grown Product
R ay C harles In Concert
W ith the O regon Sym phony
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Eric Smith
The Oregon Symphony will feature
Ray Charles in a special concert on
Thursday, April 12 at 8:00 pm at the
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Red
Lion Hotels & Inns is the concert spon­
sor.
The Oregon Symphony will be fea­
tured on the first half of the program,
under the baton of Associate conductor
Norman Leyden. Featured works will
include Youmans’ “ Flying Down to Rio”
overture, Rose’s “ Holiday for Strings,”
Anderson’s “ Bugler’s Holiday,” aParis
medley, and some of Carmichael’s great­
est hits such as ‘‘Georgia on My Mind” ,
“ Blue Orchids,” and “ S tardust”
Ray Charles will join the Oregon
Symphony for the second half of the
concert in a program of jazz, ballads,
blues, and rock that he will announce
from the stage.
Tickets for the concertares 15 to $40
and may be purchased at the Oregon
Symphony Ticket Office in downtown
Portland at 719 SW Alder, open week­
days from 9 am to 5 pm. Tickets may be
charged by telephone at 228-1353. Tickets
also are available at the Performing Arts
Center Box Office, 10am to 5:30 pm
(248-4496); and at all G.I. Joe’s Ticket-
master ticket centers.
Ray Charles
Ray Charles has the distinction of
being both a national treasure and an
international phenomenon. His name
appears on a star on Hollywood Boule­
vard’s Walk of Fame. A bronze bust of
Charles is enshrined in the Playboy Hall
of Fame. He’s also in the Halls of Fame
for Rhythm & Blues, Jazz, and Rock &
Roll. In addition, Charles has been the
recipient of 10 Grammy awards and has
had numerous gold records.
Bom Ray Charles Robinson in Al­
bany, Georgia, in 1930, Charles had
almost seven years of sight before going
blind. At the time, he was accepted as a
charity student at a school for the blind
in Florida. There he learned Braille and
how to type. He also discovered mathe­
matics and its correlation to music and
learned to compose and arrange music in
his head.
After leaving the school, Ray set out
as a struggling professional musician,
“ earning his dues” throughout Florida.
He began by building a solo act, imitat-
Another home-grown product is fastly emerging as starts in
the music industry.
Krawd Kontrol, one graduate of Jefferson High School (Class
of ’63) claims not to be just an entertainer, but also hopes to be a
role model for the community. Their producers are Marlon
McClain, Mike Maverolos and Larry Beil.
Along with other members of the band, Solomon David, Kris
Dryer and Connel Ferral, the group “ hope to convince teens to
avoid drugs and gangs and to stay in school.”
“ The only way this can happen is, kids must do the right
thing,” said Eric Smith, spokeseprson for the band.
ing Nat “ King” Cole. When he felt it
was time to move on, Ray asked a friend
to find him the farthest point from Flor­
ida on a map of the continental United
States: Seattle, Washington, was the re­
sponse.
In Seattle in the late 1940s and early
1950s, Ray became a minor celebrity.
One of the groups he formed, the McSon
Trio-Robin (son) and (Mc)Gee-was the
first Black group to have a sponsored TV
show in the Pacific Northwest. From
Seattle, Ray went to Los Angeles to cut
his first professional recording. Along
the way, Ray Charles Robinson short­
ened his name in deference to the suc­
cess of “ Sugar” Ray Robinson.
As Ray Charles, he toured for about a
year with Lowell Fulsom’s band. He
formed a group and played with singer
Ruth Brown. He played the Apollo, the
landmark showcase for Balck talent. He
aspired to Carnegie Hall, then as now
epitomizing the pinnacle of artistic suc­
cess. During these years, Charles formed
a band of his own and made his first big
hit, “ I Got A W oman.”
By the early 1960s, Ray Charles had
accomplished his dream. He had come
of age musically. He’d made it to Carne­
gie Hall. The hit records (“ Georgia,”
“ Bom to Lose” ) successively kept climb­
ing to the top of the charts. He’d made
his first triumphant European concert
tour in 1960 (a feat which, except for
1965, he’s repeated at least once a year
ever since).
Over the years, Ray Charles has taken
virtually every form of popular music
and broken through its boundaries.
Rhythm and blues became universally
respectable through his efforts. Jazz
found a mainsteam audience it had never
previously enjoyed. And country-and-
westem music began to chart an unex­
pected course to general acceptance, then,
worldwide popularity. Along the way,
Ray Charles was instrumental in the
invention of rock and roll. In the past
decade, he has taken on George Gersh­
win ( “ Porgy and Bess” ), Rodgers and
Hammerstein (“ Some Enchanted Eve­
ning,” “ Oh What a Beautiful Morn­
ing” ) and “ America the Beautiful” -a ll
with resounding, if unexpected, success.
Ray Charles records exclusively for
Warner Brothers Records.
A BREAKTHROUGH MOVIE!
Jack Kroll. NEWSWEEK
“THUMBS UP!”
Thursday, April 12, at 8 pm
Tickets: $15-$-*0
Sponsored By
SR€DLIOii
I Kill I S N IW S
Charge Tickets Bv Phone!
228-1353
Weekdays, 9 an) to 5 pin
Tickets: Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 228-1353. M on-Fn. 9am-5pm, 719 SW Alder;
Performing Arts Center Box Office, 248-4496. Mon-Sat, 10am-5:30pm; all G.I. Joe’s
“
Ticketmaster outlets. Service fee at all outlets except Oregon Symphony.
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C o m p a c t D isc s:
C o s t A n d C are
Q. How m uch do com pact
d iscs and p la y ers cost?
The discs today are getting closer
and closer to the costs of conven­
tional LPs—anyw here from about
$9 or so to $20 for some titles
Flayers a re available at a wide
range of costs and features, s ta r t­
ing a t about $100 for a basic unit
and reaching as high as $1.500 for
u ltra high-end units aim ed at “a u ­
diophiles.”
Q. H ow can I p r o te c t m y C om ­
p act D iscs?
A. Simple H andle them with
care, alw ays holding them by the
rim r a th e r than by the surface of
the disc. Keep them aw ay from ex­
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th ey ’re not actually in use.
For more tips on caring for your
compact discs, send a self-addres­
sed, stam ped #10 envelope and 45
cents to: El A. P.O. Box 19100,
W ashington, D C 20036. If you
have any additional questions
w rite Sallv Browne, t o EIA
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