his first records, made right here in Tampa. Because he had never heard himself sing, he recorded himself playing a few of his own compositions on the piano in the parlor of 813 Short Emery St. It was his wages from nights on stage that allowed him to buy a wire recorder, which would become a piece of lost musical history. Tampa was where Charles really began to hone his skills as a performer, singer and musical arranger and make real money doing so. Charles was the only black member of the Playboys and was possibly the first black person to ever step foot in the Tampa honky tonks where they played their gigs, historian Hearns says. Most crucial to Charles’ future, the house had a piano in the parlor.ĭuring his time in Tampa, Charles played the piano with a few different groups, including Charlie Brantley’s Honeydrippers, a jazz band, and the Florida Playboys, a country-western band. McKee introduced Charles to the Simmons sisters, who had a spare room for rent in their home - 813 Short Emery St., set on a one-block stretch between what is now North Orange Avenue and Jefferson Street downtown. McKee at the Blue Room, a popular Central Avenue music venue. Ray Charles is featured in a mural at downtown’s Perry Harvey ParkĪccording to Michael Lydon’s book Ray Charles: Man and Music, Charles soon had a fortuitous meeting with guitar player Gossie D. Almost 100 black-owned restaurants, bars, clubs and theaters thrived in a district unlike anywhere else in Tampa or even Florida. When the work, and the money, ran out in Orlando, Charles’ friend suggested they head to the west coast of Florida.Ĭharles arrived in Tampa in 1947, when Central Avenue was in its heyday as the city’s center of African American life. It’s where he learned to play the piano, arrange music and eventually play gigs in cities like St. “It must have left a pretty big impression on him,” says Tampa historian Fred Hearns.Ĭharles is famously known as a Georgia native thanks to his song “Georgia on My Mind,” but his family actually moved to the Florida Panhandle just a few months after his birth, and the young man born Ray Charles Robinson grew up in the Sunshine State. Musician Ray Charles lived all over the United States in his 73 years, but in his nearly 400-page autobiography, Brother Ray, he listed just one address: 813 Short Emery St.
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