Ray Charles’ Live In Concert: The Complete Performance Finally Restores an Entire 1964 Shrine Auditorium Triumph

For more than six decades, Ray Charles’ legendary 1964 concert at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium existed only in incomplete form. Now, Tangerine Records has finally restored the entire 75-minute performance with Ray Charles Live In Concert: The Complete Performance, an expanded edition of the 1965 classic Live In Concert and the first-ever complete vinyl release of the unforgettable show.

Originally issued in 1965, Live In Concert captured only a portion of the performance that Ray Charles delivered at the Shrine. The album was an immediate success, earning critical acclaim and reaching the R&B Top Ten, giving listeners a tantalizing glimpse of the electrifying live show Charles had been perfecting on stages around the world. But the original LP told only part of the story.

The Complete Performance changes that. Restored to its full 75-minute running time, the new edition presents the concert as a complete portrait of Charles at the height of his powers, backed by a remarkable orchestra featuring some of the era’s finest musicians, including tenor saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman, trombonist Julius Priester and alto saxophonist Hank Crawford.

The scale of the band was essential to the sound. Newman recalled the challenge of translating Ray’s smaller group into a full big-band setting, with Quincy Jones providing arrangements from his previous big band as a starting point. Crawford similarly remembered the ensemble as a star-studded group whose individual musicians were themselves major attractions. Together, they gave Charles the kind of expansive musical platform that allowed him to move effortlessly between jazz, R&B, soul, blues and pop.

The concert also has an extraordinary backstory. Following a four-month summer tour that concluded in Europe and Japan, the Shrine Auditorium performance marked the beginning of the fall tour and filled the venue’s more than 6,000 seats. The recording itself was the secret project of Ray’s manager, Joe Adams, a former top-rated Los Angeles DJ who believed the concert needed to be preserved.

Without telling Ray Charles—or the label executives, apart from producer Sid Feller, who agreed to play along—Adams hired legendary recording engineer Wally Heider to capture the show. Heider was renowned for his ability to record large ensembles in live settings, and Adams personally paid for the session, gambling that the resulting tapes would prove valuable. His gamble paid off spectacularly. The result was a historic document of Ray Charles performing spontaneously, without the constraints of a conventional studio session.

That spontaneity is evident from the very beginning. Charles was famous for never taking the stage with a fixed set list, making every performance potentially unpredictable. After Adams’ introduction, the show opens with “Swing a Little Taste,” a roaring instrumental showcase that puts the orchestra through its paces. Priester’s contribution to the band’s book gives the piece a powerful big-band character, while Newman takes a two-chorus solo before Charles tears into a brilliant piano passage punctuated by his unmistakable vocal exclamations.

Charles then demonstrates another side of his musicianship with “Makin’ Whoopee,” delivering a stellar piano interpretation energized by the enthusiastic Shrine audience. These opening numbers make the point immediately: this is not simply a singer backed by an orchestra, but a master musician commanding a band of exceptional players.

Then comes “One Mint Julep,” introduced with Charles’ casual command to his bandleader—“Okay, the Mint.” The audience recognizes the song immediately. His 1961 R&B chart-topper receives a spicy Quincy Jones arrangement, with cha-cha-inflected horns and Charles’ choppy organ creating an irresistible groove. Significantly, “One Mint Julep” was left off the original 1965 LP, making its appearance on The Complete Performance one of the release’s major revelations.

Another crucial restoration is “Georgia On My Mind,” which was also missing from the original album. Charles takes the song at an achingly deliberate pace, beginning with ornate organ figures and an earthy vocal surrounded by graceful flute lines. The performance gradually builds toward an emotional crescendo, transforming one of his signature songs into a deeply affecting live experience.

The concert continues with an extraordinary sequence of Charles classics, including “I Got a Woman,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Hide Nor Hair,” “That Lucky Old Sun,” “Hallelujah I Love Her So” and “Busted.” Each number demonstrates the breadth of Charles’ musical personality and his ability to make familiar material feel completely fresh in the moment.

The climax arrives with “What’d I Say,” the performance building organically from Charles’ piano and the rhythm section before the horn section crashes in and the Raelets answer with their unmistakable backing vocals. What begins as a song becomes a full-scale call-and-response celebration, blending rhythm, gospel, blues, humor and sensuality into the kind of communal musical experience that defined a Ray Charles concert.

And even after that extraordinary finale, the evening has one more surprise. Rather than a conventional encore, the audience gets the unexpected appearance of the “Ray Charles Choir,” which closes the proceedings with a playful “Pop Goes the Weasel” coda.

For the new edition, the original tapes have been freshly remastered by five-time GRAMMY winner Michael Graves, with Jeff Powell handling the vinyl mastering. Produced under the supervision of The Ray Charles Foundation, The Complete Performance is pressed on two 180-gram LPs and housed in gatefold packaging with expanded artwork and liner notes.

More than a historical restoration, Ray Charles Live In Concert: The Complete Performance offers the chance to hear an entire evening from one of the most commanding performers in American music. The original Live In Concert was already an essential document. With the missing material finally restored, this new edition reveals just how extraordinary the complete performance really was.

Tracklist

1. “Opening”
2. “Swing a Little Taste”
3. “One Mint Julep”
4. “I Got a Woman”
5. “Georgia On My Mind”
6. “Margie”
7. “You Don’t Know Me”
8. “Hide Nor Hair”
9. “That Lucky Old Sun”
10. “Baby Don’t You Cry”
11. “In The Evening (When the Song Goes Down)”
12. “Hallelujah I Love Her So”
13. “Making Whoopee”
14. “Busted”
15. “Don’t Set Me Free”
16. “Two Ton Tessie”
17. “My Baby”
18. “What’d I Say”
19. “Finale”