Soul Brothers
Jazz Album by Ray Charles and Milt Jackson
By the time Ray Charles released his second true studio album for Atlantic, June 1958’s Soul Brothers (Atlantic 1279), a pattern was emerging.
Soul Brothers is an instrumental jazz collaboration with vibraphonist Milt Jackson; Ray would release R&B singles for the popular market, and use his full-length albums to explore his fascination with (and mastery of) modern jazz. (In fact, the ever-explorative Ray would abandon the R&B-singles/jazz-LPs approach after this album.)
After the Ray Charles compilation album, which was conceived by Atlantic and was comprised of previously-released R&B hit singles, Ray’s first album proper had been The Great Ray Charles, released in August 1957 and displaying an astonishing, unexpected jazz style. Soul Brothers continued in this fashion.
Soul Brothers contains some excellent music, with long, free, intricate interplay helping to create moment after moment of sheer beauty. Interestingly, the slow, nine-minute-plus “How Long Blues” sees Ray returning to a song from his second-ever release, a 78 rpm disc from November 1949 with the McSon Trio.
Unused recordings from Milt and Ray’s sessions for this LP would eventually be released by Atlantic as Soul Meeting in June 1961, by which time Ray had already left for ABC Records.
Mono and stereo differences
Aside from the obvious sonic changes, the mono and stereo versions of the original Soul Brothers LP were different in one major way: Side 2 ended with a different track altogether. The mono had “Bag’s Guitar Blues”, while the stereo version had “Deed I Do” instead. If you’re buying original vinyl LPs, you’ll need one of each copy to have both.
Incidentally, Ray would later re-record “Deed I Do” in a more conventional (i.e., non-jazz) arrangement for his stunning The Genius Of Ray Charles LP.
Re-releases
Soul Brothers (with “Bag’s Guitar Blues”) was reissued in 2013 by the DOL label, but this version apparently did not come from the original master tapes. Rhino, through ORG Music, reissued the album that same year (but with “Deed I Do”), and this version may have been done with access to the original master tapes. I’m not sure. I got original Atlantic pressings (both versions) just to be safe, and because I prefer them anyway for history’s sake.
Record covers
Record labels
Track listing
Side A
1. “Soul Brothers”
2. “How Long Blues”
Side B
1. “Cosmic Ray”
2. “Blue Funk”
3. “Bag’s Guitar Blues” [mono LP only]
3. “Deed I Do” [stereo LP only]
Listen to Soul Brothers
Get your own Soul Brothers on LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon. Or get the complete Atlantic recordings 7xCD box set.
