Ray Charles - Live In Russia (Moscow) 1994

Through the Jazz On The Screen database I was aware of two concerts by Ray Charles at the Russia Concert Hall in Moscow on 13 and 14 July 1994, sponsored by Alfa-Bank, and of the fact that the second one, directed by Sergei Antipov, was recorded for TV. The Ray Charles concerts were part of the 2nd Annual Moscow Jazz Festival. A Russian torrent website not only adds a few details to that description (i.e. that the TV show was aired by RTR, and that the concert was also - simultaneously, as it turns out - broadcast by “Prestige“ radio), it also offers a possibility to download the concert! Sergei Antipov, sitting at an editing console, introduced the viewers to different sequences of the show. Ray’s presence in Moscow was clearly a big event. The footage starts with a reportage from a press conference at Hotel Metropol, where Ray - at his charming best - expresses his clearly genuine gratitude for being invited to Moscow for the first time in his career. Further on in the program, we see a number of street