At the of age 16, Charles moved to Seattle. While on the road, he picked up a love for heroin. Charles’s mother died when he was 15, and for a year he toured on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” in the South. The breadth of his musical interests ranged widely, from gospel to country, to blues. He also learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. Augustine, Florida-where he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille. He was blind by the age of 7, and his mother sent him to a state-sponsored school, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Soon after his brother’s death, Charles gradually began to lose his sight. One of the most traumatic events of his childhood was witnessing the drowning death of his younger brother.
His father, a mechanic, and his mother, a sharecropper, moved the family to Florida when he was an infant. More success on the R&B charts followed with “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand” and “Kissa Me Baby.” By 1953, Charles landed a deal with Atlantic Records. In 1949, he released his first single, “Confession Blues,” with the Maxin Trio. Charles later developed his distinctive sound. His early playing style closely resembled the work of his two major influences-Charles Brown and Nat King Cole. Charles performed with the McSon Trio in 1940s. There, he met a young Quincy Jones, a friend and collaborator he would keep for the rest of his life.
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