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Ray Charles (born Ray Charles Robinson), 1930-2004, was known as the "Father of Soul" but was also adept at other musical forms including jazz, gospel, and country and western. Charles was a singer, pianist, saxophonist, composer, and band leader. He became blind at age six, and was sent to the St. Augustine (Florida) School for the Deaf and the Blind where he learned to play, compose, and arrange music; and to read and write music in Braille. By the time he graduated at age fifteen, he was an orphan. Later moving to Seattle, he signed to Atlantic Records in 1952. His first hit in 1954, "I Got a Woman," was a mixture of gospel and rhythm and blues, inventing what was later called soul. Other hits include "What'd I Say," Hit the Road Jack," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Busted," "Let's Go Get Stoned," "America the Beautiful," "Georgia on My Mind," "Born to Lose," and "I Can't Stop Loving You." Charles was working on an album of duets at the time of his death from liver disease.

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