Ray Russell (musician)

Raymond " Ray" Russell ( born April 4, 1947 in Islington ( London) ) is a British pioneer of fusion guitar, which has also appeared as a studio musician, composer and music producer.

Life and work

Russell, who played guitar since the age of twelve, was a member of the John Barry Seven professional musician already with sixteen years. From 1965 he worked at Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames; In 1968, he presented with Turn Circle before his debut album. Then he worked in the band of Mike Gibbs and laid with his own group in rapid succession more albums with unique compositions between jazz and rock music. With Alex Harvey, he led the group rock workshop and was in 1971 briefly to the nucleus (Live in Bremen), before he was next to Ann Odell co-founder of Chopyn ( with drummer Simon Phillips). He also belonged to the band of Harry Beckett.

Together with Andy Mackay, he recorded the theme music for the British television series rock Follies. He, too, was temporarily Stackridge and worked as a guitarist for Smith & D'Abo, but next to Eric Clapton also titled The Secret Policeman 's Ball for Wohltätigkeitsversanstaltungen. Together with Mo Foster and Simon Phillips, he formed the band RMS. The British Orchestra, he devoted himself in the early 1980s, the Music of Gil Evans, with whom he has performed well in 1983 at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1986 he joined London's West End in the musical time than Cliff Richard.

In the studios he worked for stars such as Tina Turner, Van Morrison, Art Garfunkel, Dionne Warwick, Bryan Ferry, Jack Bruce, Cat Stevens, Phil Collins and Robert Plant. As a composer, he was commissioned mainly by British and American TV and wrote determined for series such as A Touch of Frost, Jim Bergerac, Plain Jane, A Bit of a Do, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, Dangerfield or Grafters. For this work he was awarded several prizes, including an ASCAP award for the most played music on American television and two awards from the Royal Television Society.

With Ralph Salmiņš 2008 he founded the production company Made Up Music, the albums produced with potential soundtracks. Together with Mo Foster and Ralph Salmiņš he gave seminars in British educational institutions; In 2007 he was visiting professor at the University of Leeds.

Disco Graphical Notes

Lexigraphic entries

• John Chilton Who's Who of British Jazz, Continuum International Publishing Group 2004, ISBN 0-8264-7234-6