Ray Russell - British jazz guitarist / composer

[DaveinLondon]

Anybody else here familiar with the music of Ray Russell?

I first heard him recently when I bought the reissue of one of his albums from the late 60s, 'Turn Circle'. There's some great recent live clips on YouTube to have a look at.

Ray is a contemporary of John McLaughlin (they were moving in similar circles in the London scene of the '60s) and although his profile in the US is lower, Ray has had a very successful career as a session player and composer for TV and film. Over the years, he's played with the likes of Gil Evans, Mark Isham, Scott Walker, John Barry, Georgie Fame and many more.

Apparently Nels Cline, Thurston Moore and Jim O'Rourke are big fans (O'Rourke actually put out on his own label a live 1971 Russell album not long ago). I hear some similarities between Russell and Terje Rypdal and Jeff Beck.

There's a handful of his more fusion-oriented releases from the '70s and '80s on iTunes, but I would recommend 'Turn Circle' to any jazz guitar fan. http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDSML8436

www.rayrussell.co.uk (http://www.rayrussell.co.uk)

Ray on YouTube:
'Goodbye Svengali', 2006: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5fa25xDFA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=35-SUrXJCRA

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v7fv9SZaizo

[dunara]

I think you'll find a lot of UK musos are well aware of Ray as being a first-call session player in London for the last 25 years or so, along with the likes of Steve Donnelly and Ian Bairnson. If you're not a muso, you'll recognise his composition and playing on the likes of 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Bergerac'. He also contributed to 'Rock Follies', although I'm not sure he'd still own up to it.:huh
I saw Ray and Mo Foster playing in the 80s on a jazz/rock tour of some kind - I must have seen hundreds of such gigs. Could have been with Dick Heckstall-Smith, possibly? Those were the days when you could tour at any level, reasonably profitably in the UK.......:puh
Ray's a great player for sure, and always has superb tone.

[trisonic]

Big fan of Ray from early days.
Not many other guitarists on here are really aware of him unfortunately.......loved his work over the years with Mo Foster in particular.

Best, Pete

[teleharmonium]

He's fantastic, I love all of his out there jazz albums.

[gec78221]

great player......

[seiko]

Big fan of Ray from early days.
Not many other guitarists on here are really aware of him unfortunately.......loved his work over the years with Mo Foster in particular.

Best, Pete

The studio version of "Stained Angel Morning" might be one of the most awesome things I've ever heard, I'm not so keen on his more mellow stuff.