The Jazz Life— Ray Russell
Guitarist & Composer
Ray Russell is one of the finest jazz musicians Britain has ever produced who has also played with the likes of Cliff Richard, Van Morrison, Tina Turner, Phil Collins and Bryan Ferry, to name but five.
Over the years he’s also written extensively for television.
London born Russell first came to the notice of the public in the 1950s when, aged 12, he appeared on the Carol Levis TV talent show where he sang Paul Anka’s ‘I Love You Baby’. He didn’t win, but, as a result of the way he bashed out the Anka tune on his child-size guitar, his confidence was given a huge boost.
A boost that enabled him to sum up the courage to sit-in with a band in a Soho club, an event which encouraged him to start his own band at school with his friend George Bean. The band was inevitably called ‘George Bean and the Runners’, which is perhaps not the most memorable of names for a band. But, with Ray playing his shiny Burns Vista-Sonic, the music was good, very good.
So good, that by the late 1950s, with hours and hours of practice under his belt, he auditioned for the superb Eric Delaney Big Band. At the audition, due to getting his shoe nailed to the floor (don’t ask), he never got to play,which is something we can now be grateful for because, by the early 1960s, he became the guitarist with the…
