Catchin' Some Rays: The Music of Ray Charles is the 6th album by jazz singer Roseanna Vitro, released in August 1997 on the Telarc Jazz label.
Reception
AllMusic awarded the album 3 stars, with reviewer Scott Yanow citing a "highly enjoyable" and "continually interesting set," itself benefitting from the singer's talent, versatility, and juducious avoidance of Charles' most over-exposed vehicles, as well as from contributions by "pianist Ken Werner (who duets with the singer on a medley of "You Don't Know Me" and "Ruby"), trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and tenorman [and Ray Charles alumnus] David "Fathead" Newman."[4]
A contemporaneous review by The Washington Post music critic Geoffrey Himes notes two tactics employed by both Vitro and, before that, Shirley Horn in her own Ray Charles tribute album, Light Out of Darkness: namely, a "more elastic sense of swing" to "replace [Charles'] pounding R&B rhythms," and an emphasis on "the sound of the vocals and the detours they take":
Vitro gives every song either a finger-snapping swing arrangement or a swooning cabaret ballad setting. Over the throbbing pulse established by acoustic bassists Ray Drummond and Ed Howard, Vitro adds her smart, sultry vocals. She sticks close to the original melody on the first verse and chorus, but then starts slipping and sliding out of the original pathway to add her own twists on the tunes. When she shifts into Charles' trademark soulful, bluesy purr, she does it so naturally and convincingly that she sounds right at home with Charles' longtime tenor saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman.[5]
