“Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess (Instrumental)”

Ray Charles plays a nice version of “Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess” as a piano instrumental on Side D of the Porgy And Bess 2-LP collaboration he recorded as a one-off with Cleo Laine for RCA in 1976.

This instrumental version by Ray is allowed to wander freely across the spaces between the notes of the melody of the subsequent vocal and orchestra version (sung by Ray in the guise of Porgy). A nervous and angry emotive drama is pounded out by Ray’s expert skill and uncanny knack for juxtaposing soft and hard approaches to the keyboard.

Unrestricted by meter, Ray lets soft notes linger a couple seconds longer than expected, then suddenly kills them off with louder and more haphazard series of complex chords. The tune lurches to and fro, like the enraged despair of a man just released from prison who finds out that his woman has run off with another man, which is in fact the case for Porgy at this point of Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin, and DuBose Heyward’s famous folk opera.

Ray’s simple, carefully held notes and chords are contrasted throughout with dazzling and complicated lines of notes that either trill in one area of the piano or zip up and down the keyboard. It’s a mesmerizing performance, wrought with pain and anger and desperation.

Nothing more than a mere connecting piece, “Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess (instrumental)” is a testament to Ray Charles’ power at the piano and the ability of filler to become an expressive and vital piece of a whole in the hands of a master.

Single releases

Listen to “Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess (Instrumental)”

The vocal and strings version of “Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess” was released as the B-side of a single to promote Porgy And Bess in 1976, but this instrumental piano version is only available on the album.

Get your own “Oh, Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess (Instrumental)” on LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon.