Ray Russell

Ray Russell is one of the UK's best and most innovative jazz and jazz fusion guitarists and is also a music producer, composer and session musician. His TV compositions have included A Touch of Frost, Bergerac, Plain Jane and A Bit Of A Do. He is well known in the UK for his contributions to bands led by fellow jazz musicians such as Mike Gibbs, Ian Carr's Nucleus, Georgie Fame, Bob Downes and Harry Beckett. However he has also worked with major stars such as Gill Evans, John Barry, Tina Turner, Phil Spector, The Ronettes, Van Morrison, Art Garfunkel, Dionne Warwick, Bryan Ferry, Jack Bruce, Cat Stevens, Phil Collins, Alex Harvey, Georgie Fame, Cliff Richard and Frankie Miller. His own cooperative band RMS (Ray Russell, Mo Foster and Simon Phillips) has recorded the albums Centennial Park and Take Me to the Sun. This line-up first appeared at Montreaux Festival on July 1983, after their set, they also played backing Gil Evans that same night. The set included a lengthy rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s 'Little Wing'. This concert was later released, credited to Gil Evans with RMS, under the title “Take Me To The Sun”, assembled with another studio track recorded in 1988.

Ray Russell has made several albums including: Turn Circle(1968); Dragon Hill(1969); June 11th 1971 Live at the ICA (1971); Rites & Rituals (1971); Secret Asylum (1973); Ready or Not (1977); Childscape (1994); Why Not Now (1999); Live at the ICA: Retrospective (2000); Goodbye Svengali (2006); The Composers Cut (2006) and A Table Near the Band (2006); Now More Than Ever (2013); The Celestial Squid (with Henry Kaiser) (2015).

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