From the Vault: Ernie Elly performing with Ray Charles (1969)

Preservation Hall drummer Ernie Elly recently discovered a very special video on Youtube. It’s a performance, filmed in Paris in 1969, featuring himself on the drums – on tour with Ray Charles and his big band orchestra. You can see Mr. Elly performing below in the first few moments of this incredible archival footage.

Ernie Elly with Ray Charles

In the 1960s, Ernie’s friend from the Air Force, the saxophonist John Cloyd Miller, had joined Ray Charles’ band and requested an audition for Elly. “And that’s how I ended up playing with [Charles],” Ernie recalls. “I was a youngster, and he got on my butt from time to time, but he liked New Orleans musicians. Sometimes he’d say his band was the best band on earth. That made us all feel good.”

Elly would tour with Ray Charles and his big swing band for three seasons, performing nightly showstoppers like “What I Say?” and other favorites of Elly’s, including “Hit The Road, Jack” and “Bear Cat.” Other musicians in the band took the young Elly under their wing to help teach him Charles’ particular big band style, especially the trumpeter Bill King. “Most of those people are deceased now,” Elly recalls. “It’s a sad part of life. I wish everyone could just keep on living.”

We are in awe of this incredible piece of music history. Learn more about Mr. Elly in this Salon 726 post.

Ernie Elly by Shannon Brinkman