chrijom New album by Ray Russell coming seven years after his last album Goodbye Svengali. This one seems a bit harder hitting particularly in his guitar sound which appears much more direct than the various shades that were applied to the last album in a painterly way. However, there are some great tunes here such as Slow Day that has a great memorable riff. This is not to say that the music is all straightforward or put together in an obvious way as there are some really interesting sounds and textures on this album. At times it feels much more rockier than the previous album which I feel adds to a much more direct approach and the guitar led structures. Ray's guitar playing is as interesting as ever and this has certainly been worth waiting for, let's hope we don't have to wait another seven before the next one!

chrijom Goodbye Svengali is Ray's tribute to Gil Evans. Having heard snippetts of this online I had put off getting this in favour of Ray's earlier albums from the sixties and seventies. However, I was totally wrong which became very clear to me when I finally got around to buying it. This is a great jazz album and there is a broad range of colours and textures on this album. None of the music is difficult to listen to although that doesn't mean that it not exciting or adventurous in it's nature. Ray conjures a plethora of sounds and tones from his guitar and even uses some guitar synth textures. The compositions have some memorable themes which develop and recapitulate to give a wholeness to the pieces, whilst the playing throughout the album from all musicians is top notch. Highly recommended.

chrijom For me this is Ray Russell's masterpiece, an excellent piece of modern jazz with a blend of tonal and more dissonant textures. Ray's playing as always is excellent and is very adventurous within some complex textures and structures. The interplay between the musicians is second to none especially due to the complex nature of the music at times. This is a masterpiece of British Jazz from the late sixties and a brilliant example of the type of music that British jazz musicians were producing from around this time, a very exciting period in the development of jazz in Britain. It may take a few listens but there is so much here to enjoy.

Sean Trane A live album from one concert in June of 71, the line-up is the usual Russell acolytes with Beckett, Rushton, Runswick and Roberts , but they are definitely m more experimental and improvisational mood than their recent R&R release. Indeed right from the start, the band goes dissonant in these mostly-new “compositions” (not sure they can be called that), as none of them appeared previously in albums. Beit Lapis or the two Tip Roote tracks, this soundscape is much less accessible than R&R or the previous DH albums. As for the Stained Angel Morning track, it will be featured on the future Secret Asylum release, and to be honest, I’m not quite sure the live version is any wilder or energetic than the studio version on SA. Not that it matters much, because only avant/free jazzheads will appreciate.

The CD reissue features two extra tracks on the now-first disc of this new product, both recorded in 78, and if the line-up and musical realm are somewhat similar, the appearance of Windo (in lieu of Beckett) and the addition of Brian Miller on keyboards do not change much at all. The second disc is an amalgam of different gigs, sessions and broadcasts, the first of which dates from 74 and features Windo with Beckett and is the logical Secret Asylum continuation. Surprisingly the following tracks, taken from a live studio session, are much more accessible and even downright melodic, when compared to ,the rest of the stuff so far heard on the reissue, despite featuring the same line-up of Beckett & Windo. Both Riff To Far and That Dream Again are rather bluesy and offer some sizzling horn soloing, while the quiet and ultra-slow Blue Rain is a soppy ballad. One can easily add to this session the live track, aptly titled The Name Of Which I Can’t Recall, a very standard-y, although Russell’s guitar play the troublemaker in that passé-ish soundscape, before Beckett and Windo also cluch in the free-improv gear. The “Retrospective” disc closes on the live Dragon, Hill track that dates from before the album’s actual release, but it sounds easily the best track of the two discs.

Well, most standard or casual jazzers will probably want to shun this double CD package, because the original album disc only gets more of the same as a bonus track, while the “retrospective” disc features some rather-more accessible stuff (some tracks anyway), especially the Dragon Hill track. Your call, but I wouldn’t.

Sean Trane Second “solo” album from the British guitarist, even if the line-up is presented as a line-up as a quartet, Dragon Hill was released in early 69 on the Columbia UK label and had a “global” artwork, which seemed to announce the future solar artwork of his later R&R album. Featuring the usual suspect of Rushton and Mathewson, the quartet also had Roy Fry on piano, but there were a few guests involved as well, like Beckett and Dobson.

Strangely enough, despite a rough or difficult start, DH is probably one of Russell’s most accessible albums. After the first dissonant minute or so, Fry’s piano brings the 12-mins title track to a more conventional ground, but Russell’s guitar insists on being limit-screechy, and once the horns intervene briefly, the “tune” detunes itself again and will play with the frontier of dissonance for the remainder. The following Something In The Sky is definitely more standard-y with a contrabass solo and has big-band-like horn response in the end. On the flipside, Paper-back features some electric piano (not a Rhodes, imho) and sounds a bit more fusion while White Snow is really laid-back, thus making the contrast with the much more up-tempoed closing piece Mandela, where Fry gets a big share of the spotlight, despite the reurn of the horn section.

More accessible than the R&R album, DH is often on the limit of the dissonant frontier and loves to challenge you and test your sonic sanity. Like most Russell album, I don’t think it’s an essential listen, but certainly an educative one, but whether you’d get enough mileage out of it to have it in your shelves is really up to you.