“Angel City”
Song by Ray Charles
Ray Charles’ version of Teddy Edwards’ 1962 jazz instrumental “Angel City” is the penultimate song on Side 2 of Ray’s 1970 LP My Kind Of Jazz. It finds Ray and his band in an ultra-relaxed mood, picking their way carefully through a slow-moving groove that never threatens to rear its head and bite.
Although Terry Edwards was a saxophone player, Ray’s “Angel City” is highlighted by a trumpet which occasionally solos during the performance. The horn’s leisurely, even mournful lines are evocative of a city street on a Sunday afternoon, when not much is happening and there isn’t much to do but whistle down the sidewalk and pass the time.
But while that trumpet may get the periodic spotlight, most of “Angel City” is dominated by the slow, steady rhythm tapped out by the drums and the shiveringly low saxophone notes, over which a restrained brass ensemble plays the gentle main melody of the piece.
Rarely had Ray Charles played jazz music like this. It’s not sedate, exactly, but “Angel City” seems to go out of its way to hold itself back from getting too cluttered; empty space abounds throughout.
As with much of Ray Charles’ jazz work of the 1970s, his own piano is buried so far in the mix, and kept so doggedly from being a significant contributor in general, that it’s often inaudible. Only the very occasional trill peeps through. Although as adept at astonishing piano playing as ever, Ray generally went for a different jazz feel in this period, letting his players communicate the messages of the pieces and spending his own time carefully creating the mixes that would be released.
And so “Angel City” stands as a pleasant moment of unhurried freedom, a bleary stroll that risks little but somehow manages to comfort the soul.
Listen to “Angel City”
Songs on My Kind Of Jazz