But $500,000 had been placed in trusts for each of the children to be paid out over the next five years, according to people at the meeting and a trust document. Most of Charles' assets would be left to his charitable foundation. Ten of them, ranging in age from 16 to 50 - with 10 mothers among them - listened as their father told them he was mortally ill and outlined what they could expect from his fortune. We usually get a standing ovation at the end.Shortly before Christmas 2002, Ray Charles called a meeting of his 12 children at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. I can say we have not had one show that bombed. “We project that to the audience and hope they are having a good time. “We have a good time on stage,” Brawner said. The concert also includes favorites such “I Got a Woman,” “What’d I Say” and “Baby it’s Cold Outside.” said he appreciates the fact that Brawner plays many of his father’s older songs, such as “A Fool for You” and “Drown in My Own Tears.” “‘Georgia on my Mind’ gets the same response.”īrawner said Ray Charles Jr. “Every time I start that song, the audiences, no matter we are, they always go in applause when I open up that song,” he said. To this day, I’m still embarrassed by that.”Ĭharles, who died in 2004, was completely blind by age 7.īrawner said one of his favorite Charles’ songs is “You Don’t Know Me.” “I asked for an autograph, and he said, ’Son, I can’t write.’ I was a little bit embarrassed. “When I was 17, I went back to see if I could talk with him,” Brawner said. He thought we did a great job and was pleased with the show.”īrawner attended several of Ray Charles’ concerts. “He came backstage, gave us his OK and took pictures with us,” Brawner said. attended a recent performance of the show in California. “Since the fall, we’ve been working pretty steadily,” he said.īrawner’s Palladium performance marks the first time he has brought the show to central Indiana.īrawner said the purpose is to keep Charles’ music alive. “I’m going to Europe in the summer to do some blues festivals, just me and some Italian musicians I’ll be working with,” he said.īrawner said many of his shows were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “He was a big influence on my music growing up,” Brawner said.īrawner said the Charles concerts consume most of his schedule. Like Charles, Brawner is a Georgia native.
“Even in my own music, people say they can hear a little Ray Charles in everything I can do,” said Brawner, who usually played a couple of Ray Charles songs in his own concerts. “It’s a big orchestra sound,” Brawner said.īrawner started working on the Charles concerts in 2014. “The arrangements are very close to Ray’s arrangements,” said Brawner, who performs monologues to detail Charles’ journey.īrawner said trumpet player Roger Ingram, who will play in the Palladium performance, played with Charles for five years.
March 25 at the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.īrawner, a popular pianist-vocalist, will lead the 11-piece orchestra and three vocalists, similar to the Raelettes who sang with Charles, in performing some of Charles’ biggest hits. I stay into character the whole show.”īrawner will perform “Ray On My Mind: The Ray Charles Story” at 8 p.m. “I call it a hybrid theater-concert piece where we actually play Ray’s music and tell the story,” Brawner said. Kenny Brawner regards his show as something more than a tribute to Ray Charles.
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