Genius + Soul = Jazz is a 1961 album by American musician Ray Charles, featuring big band arrangements by Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns. Charles is accompanied by two groups drawn from members of The Count Basie Band and from the ranks of top New York session players. It was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in two sessions on December 26 and 27, 1960 and originally released on the Impulse! label as Impulse! A–2. Charles plays the Hammond B3 organ on all tracks. Genius + Soul = Jazz was re-issued in the UK, first in 1989 on the Castle Communications "Essential Records" label, and by Rhino Records in 1997 on a single CD together with Charles' 1970 My Kind of Jazz. In 2010, Concord Records released a deluxe edition comprising digitally remastered versions of Genius + Soul = Jazz, My Kind of Jazz, Jazz Number II, and My Kind of Jazz Part 3. In 2000, the album was voted number 360 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Critical reception

In the Encyclopedia of Albums, edited by Paul Du Noyer, the album is described as "The eclectic Charles's only big-band jazzy get-together of the early Sixties"; the track "One Mint Julep" is highlighted as "[seeing] the versatile singer cool and confident enough to let the musicians do the talking, while he played the organ throughout. Yet his mixing together of various styles was vastly influential, and his legacy to singers was what Chuck Berry's was to guitarists." In 2000, Genius + Soul = Jazz was voted number 360 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition. In 2011, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Track listing

Personnel

On all tracks

December 26, 1960, session: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 & 9

December 27, 1960, session: Tracks 4, 5, 6 & 10