"Your collection could be completely filled with nothing but Ray Charles music," singer and songwriter Tom Waits mused recently, "and you'd have a fairly complete picture of American music."

Ray Charles made everything a testimony, and in both his singing and his piano playing there's a sense of discovery, of sharing and humility. Manipulating shrugged-off turns and curls and small gestures into persuasive phrases, he got beyond the "text" of a song to convey humor and wonder and a bubbling, barely contained enthusiasm for life.