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Ray Russell, Cecil Taylor, And More
by Bob Osborne
Featured albums are recent re-releases of albums from Ray Russell, capturing late '60s UK jazz at its' best, and Cecil Taylor with two live performances from 1987 which are unique and memorable. In between a selection of newer releases from around the wide World of Jazz.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 The Steve Sandberg Trio “Karma Yoga" from Live At Soapbox Gallery (Self Released) 00:29 Enrique Peña “Mimin" from Laberinto (ears&eyes) 06:57 The Ray Russell Quartet “Spontaneous Event" from The ...
Continue ReadingRay Russell Plus New Releases From Ears&Eyes
by Bob Osborne
This week we feature a selection of mostly new releases including the recent one from guitar legend Ray Russell who has enjoyed two distinct careers: one as an esteemed session player and award-winning film and television composer, another as an ingenious guitar experimentalist and free-thinking collaborator. There are also some new albums from the ears&eyes label and ground breaking sounds from Bonjintan and the trio of Dan Blake, Jon Irabagon and Ingrid Laubrock. Last but not least, I feature a ...
Continue ReadingRay Russell: Fluid Architecture
by Mark Sullivan
Veteran British guitarist and composer Ray Russell has been active in free jazz, fusion and as a session player. His whole range of experience finds a voice in the opener “Escaping The Six String Cage," as he and synthesist Eric Baldwin explore a wide range of guitar sounds. Slide guitar gives way to lyrical volume pedal swells, followed by rhythmic loops leading into free playing. Lyrical delay evolves into an abstract soundscape, finally returning to slide. Several tracks ...
Continue ReadingHarry Beckett: Joy Unlimited
by Chris May
The Barbados-born trumpeter Harry Beckett moved to Britain when he was 19. His first known recording session came in 1961 alongside Charles Mingus. This happened during the London sessions for the Tubby Hayes album All Night Long (Fontana, 1962), which was chronicled in the 2020 All About Jazz article Jazz & Film: An Alternative Top 20 Soundtrack Albums. To debut with Mingus was an auspicious beginning and Beckett never looked back. Seemingly loved by everyone who met ...
Continue ReadingRay Russell: Playing with Time
by Ian Patterson
Each time guitarist/composer Ray Russell releases a new album, it feels like a comeback. Now, More than Ever, Russell's debut on the Abstract Logix label, comes seven years after Goodbye Svengali (Cuneiform Records, 2006), his heartfelt tribute to composer Gil Evans. Although Russell may drop off the radar for periods of time, he's never really far away from our ears. For much of the past 30 years, Russell has composed award-winning music for a plethora of hugely popular TV shows ...
Continue ReadingRay Russell: Now, More Than Ever
by Ian Patterson
English guitarist/composer Ray Russell has flown under the radar for most of his 45-year career, dividing his energies between his own projects, sessions for some of the biggest names in popular music and composing award-winning music for television and film. Russell's wide-ranging musical interests have meant that his own recordings have sometimes been separated by long gaps, and this is probably the main reason why he isn't better known. Seven years after Goodbye Svengali, Russell's tribute to composer Gil Evans, ...
Continue ReadingRay Russell Quartet: Turn Circle
by Roger Farbey
Vocalion has done it again, with a long overdue reissue of Ray Russell's first album Turn Circle (originally released in on the CBS Realm series), and superbly remastered by Michael J. Dutton. Russell is probably the most heinously undervalued jazz guitarist in the world, which is ironic because he is undoubtedly one of the best. His style is his own, sounding like no other guitarist.This album, recorded in 1968, is quite beautiful and the rather quaint cover art ...
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