Trade ad for Ray Charles' "Yesterday"

Trade ad for Ray Charles' "Yesterday"

Ray Charles

Ray Charles, born in 1930 to an exceptionally poor family, moved to St. Augustine at age 7 after losing his sight, in order to attend the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB). While attending the school Charles not only learned communicative braille and sign language, but also how to read and compose braille music. He also received his first musical education at the FSDB breaking into the world of entertainment as he was trained to play piano, saxophone, trumpet, organ, and clarinet. Charles later recalled that his time at the FSDB was an essential experience that guided his journey through music. It taught him how to play and introduced him to the challenging practice of memorizing pages of sheet music at a time, that would later become essential when he composed his own pieces.

During his time in St. Augustine, when he wasn’t at FSDB, Charles was doing what most of the African American youths in town were--going to black lounges and clubs in West Augustine. The Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center even houses a piano said to have been played by Charles in a local club.

Ad featured in Billboard, Nov. 4, 1967, p. 29:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ray_Charles#/media/File:Ray_Charles_(1967)_-_square_crop.jpg

Public domain.

1967