Ray Charles - "Genius Loves Company"(Concord Records, 2004) - * * 1/2

I've been a fan of Ray Charles' music for as long as I can remember. I was deeply saddened by his death, which came in the same year as another of my personal favorites, Johnny Cash. When I learned this album was being released posthumously, I had to get a copy, just to hear what Ray had spent his final year developing.

What I got was Charles' attempt to reproduce Frank Sinatra's "Duets" album, which works to a degree. It's pure gold hearing the live recording of Charles' duet with Van Morrison, in which the two artists seem to duel vocally over who really owns the song "Crazy Love". The problem is, only a handful of the other duets hold a candle to that track, which is saved for last on the album.

This was the first Ray Charles album to break the double platinum mark for sales, but after spending time with this album, I don't think it is worthy of his genius. Had he not died while completing it, there's no reason to believe the album would have been considered worthy of as many award nominations as it received. It certainly wouldn't have sold millions of copies.

Ray Charles - "Crazy Love (featuring Van Morrison)"