According to a press release, the idea for the set was spawned by Concord Records exec John Burk, who produced "Genius Loves Company," after he came across some tapes marked "Ray/Basie" while scouring the label's Berkeley, CA, vaults.

"The quality of these reels wasn't great," Burk said in a statement. "They appeared to be recordings from the live soundboard with Ray's vocal way up front, and the band way in the background. At first, the tapes seemed unusable, but Ray sounded amazing."

There is no record of Charles ever playing with Basie, and it turned out that the tapes--thought to be concert recordings made by producer Norman Granz--featured Charles playing with his own orchestra. (The Basie Orchestra had played earlier that night; Count Basie died of cancer in 1983.)

"I was disappointed that Ray wasn't performing with the Basie band," Burk said. "But, then I thought that we could re-record the music with the current Basie Orchestra."

Thanks to about four months of studio wizardry, that's exactly what happened. "These tapes were just waiting for technology to catch up so we can help Ray do what he always did so naturally--make magic happen," Burk said.

Besides the Basie Orchestra, the album featured musical contributions from Patti Austin, who arranged and sang back-up vocals with the new Raelettes. Other players included jazz pianists Shelly Berg and Jim Cox, as well as B-3 organist Joey DeFrancesco.

Producer and engineer Gregg Field, who toured and recorded with both Charles and the Basie band, was also enlisted to lend a hand.

"We worked so hard to retain the artistic integrity of each artist, and the result is an amazing combination of the Ray vocal style and the Basie sound," Field said in a press release. "I can't tell you how many times we'd turn the vocal down in the studio to work on the track, and when we brought Ray back into the mix, the hair on the back of your neck would stand up."

Charles died in 2004 of complications from acute liver disease. He was 73.