Local & State Headlines

Charles statue erected

• A statue of Ray Charles installed in Albany Tuesday is the only one of its kind in the United States.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — From a walkway of piano keys, with sharps and flats as benches, to an illuminated longleaf forest — “the moonlight in the pines” — no detail is missing in Albany’s new Ray Charles Plaza.

Workers continued cutting brick for a large treble clef as the park’s centerpiece, a larger-than-life bronze likeness of Charles, was lowered by crane onto a platform at the park Tuesday.

“It’s like a symphony itself, all these different artists,” said sculptor Andy Davis after guiding the statue of Charles seated at a baby grand piano into place to be bolted onto the platform.

While visitors will view the statue — illuminated, it will revolve on the platform as Charles’ music plays on park loudspeakers and water pours down the sides of the statue base — Davis also has designed a “maquette,” a miniature, highly-touchable version that will be placed in front of the larger likeness, he said.

Davis invited students from Georgia’s Academy for the Blind to help him design the statue and the maquette, not yet in place, which will feature markings in braille, he said.

Above a moat that encircles the larger statue will be the words: “Ray Charles Plaza,” said Brad Jones, project manager for the landscape architecture firm that designed the park.

The overall effect — stage lighting, movement, music — is of a performance by Charles, Jones said.

“In an hour, you’d have a performance in the park of Ray Charles music,” said Jones, of Norcross’ Jordan, Jones and Goulding.

Two walkways designed like keyboards, their raised sharps and flats forming benches not yet stained black, flank the statue and connect by a gentle paved slope to Albany’s riverwalk.

Illuminated loblollies, longleaf pines, live oaks and grasses characteristic of Georgia’s native longleaf pine forests will provide the “moonlight in the pines” of Georgia’s state song, “Georgia on my Mind” made famous by Charles, Jones said.

“All functioning aspects” of the park will be ready for a grand opening event Dec. 7, he said.

Former Albany Rep. John White helped author the legislation that made Charles’ hit the official state song in March 1979, then invited Charles for his first adult visit to his birthplace three months later, said White, who watched the statue’s arrival Tuesday.

Charles performed the song on the floor of the Georgia legislature that year, calling it “one of the most moving moments of my life,” said White.

Though he lived in Albany only briefly after his birth here in 1930, Charles would be “ecstatic” about the Albany tribute, including the statue, White said.

“You only get to be born one time and that was in Albany, Ga.,” he said.

Besides a likeness of Charles in Montreux, Switzerland, home of a legendary jazz festival, the statue is the only one of its kind, White said.

“This is such a historic piece,” he said.

Observing the installation, Albany State University junior Whitney Littles said the site was an amazing tribute to an Albany native.

“It’s just amazing,” said Littles, a native of Newton. “It’s going to be absolutely gorgeous.

“A lot of times, small towns get overlooked. We have some good people that do amazing things that come from small towns.”

Observers could only see the piano, and Charles’ feet poking out from a tarpaulin that won’t be removed until Dec. 7.

“That little bit we did see, we know it’s pretty delicate,” said Janice Holland.

The park is fully wired and ready to be turned on Dec. 7, said Lee Ludeman, general superintendent for the project with contractor JHC Corp.

From the tiny version of Charles to the braille markings, “the little details make all the difference,” said Tim Martin, president and CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce. “This is a work of art, this whole plaza,” he said.

More Headlines>>