By BOB KEEFE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/30/04

LOS ANGELES — It started with a hopeful invitation from a little college to a big-time musician. But seven years ago on a swing through Georgia, Ray Charles accepted the invitation to sit in with Morehouse College's 15-member jazz ensemble in Atlanta.

CHRIS WEEKS/Associated Press Stevie Wonder performs Wednesday as part of a night to remember Ray Charles and a fund-raiser for Morehouse College.

Together, they started a relationship that's growing stronger even after his death. Wednesday night, Morehouse went cross-country to Beverly Hills to pay tribute to its adopted musical son — and along the way, raise some money for its planned Ray Charles Performing Arts Center. More than 800 people paid $300 and up to attend a star-studded tribute to the man known musically as "Genius" and hear his old friends such as Stevie Wonder, Patti Austin, Ronnie Milsap and Travis Tritt perform his standards — occasionally sounding eerily close to Charles himself. While the music was familiar, some in the packed ballroom of the Beverly Hilton had never heard of the 2,800-student, all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta. Others knew it well. "Morehouse still means a lot to me," said actor Samuel L. Jackson, who graduated from Morehouse in 1972 and met wife LaTanya Richardson while he majored in theater there. "The friendships . . . the relationships I made in college 30 years ago are still very strong." Morehouse raised more than $1 million from the Ray Charles tribute event that will be used for the planned $15 million performing arts center. Before his death, Charles — who had never even been to Morehouse before his fateful jam session with the jazz ensemble — gave the school $2 million. Despite the distance, there were good reasons for Morehouse to hold the tribute in Los Angeles.

For starters, Georgia may have been on the mind of Charles, who was born in Albany, Ga., but L.A. was his adopted home. "Ray Charles was special to us . . . and when we began to think about giving him his due, we had the feeling that it should be here," said Kathleen Johnson, the Morehouse official responsible for planning the event. But there were other reasons too. More students at Morehouse hail from California than any place in the country except for Georgia, Johnson said. And when it comes to raising money for entertainment-related causes, there's of course no better place to be than the entertainment capital of the world. "It all makes sense," said entertainer Bill Cosby, a Morehouse trustee who emceed the event. Cosby's son Ennis graduated from the school. "They [also] wanted to come out here to make themselves known," he said, "so they used this opportunity." Reasoning aside, when you mix academics with music, Atlanta with Beverly Hills, it makes for an eclectic event. Actor Steven Segal, wearing a Chinese-style housecoat, arrived at the black-tie event through a hotel kitchen hallway. Television judge Glenda Hatchett was there, as was Billye Aaron, wife of Hammering Hank. Onstage, Wonder sat down to the piano like his blind predecessor and revved up the crowd with "Hit the Road Jack," while James Ingram, whose son also graduated from Morehouse, brought them home with "Georgia On My Mind." Oakland, Calif. resident Stephanie Williams couldn't afford a ticket to the tribute. But she made a point to travel to Beverly Hills and stand outside to see another musician — her son Gerald, one of eight Morehouse Jazz Ensemble members who served as the opening act for the tribute. "There's a lot of history, a lot of heritage with Morehouse," Williams said in explaining why her son wanted to go to a little college on the opposite side of the country. "And it's opened doors for a lot of people." As benefactors and attendees filed past Williams and her son, they carried with them a memento from the evening: a small bag containing two CDs — one from Ray Charles and, appropriately enough, one from the Morehouse Jazz Ensemble.

CHRIS WEEKS/Associated Press 'Morehouse still means a lot to me,' says actor Samuel L. Jackson, a graduate of the Atlanta college.