Brit Guitarist/libraryman Ray Russell in 8 LPs from 1973 to 1987, incl. fusion masterpiece Ready or Not, 1977, and a requested Brave New World

 

From discogs:

British guitarist, composer and producer who has worked with such artists as Gil 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, Mark Isham, Georgie Fame, Cliff Richard and Frankie Miller.

First up, who doesn't love that cover photo of Ready or Not with the beaded, bearded, berobed priest at work with his Fender...

A very inauspicious 1973 album called Secret Asylum with mostly free jazz preceded his big fusion masterpiece, Ready or Not, which absolutely blows it out of the ballpark for me, resembling the big Jeff Beck masterpiece Blow by Blow mentioned earlier.  Subsequently we get all library material with the usual generic pieces.  I'm still looking for his solo Brave New World! the other version of which also featured the great Alan Hawkshaw (posted below).  I confess that by the time of 1987's Hi-Band Entertainment 1, I was fast forwarding within seconds of each track, it's so replete with the annoying digitalese fake drums and loud-echoey casio chords typical of the era. And I can't believe, looking at the discography, how many of these libraries were churned out in the eighties and nineties!!  It's like the kind of music I'd expect an AI to generate entirely without any acoustic instruments or hominid input, entirely computer-fashioned and computer-minded.  By computers, and for computers, in other words.

Anyways, we have a gem in Ready or Not, and the library follow up City Limits has some interest too.  Included is a really interesting version of Living in the City with an I am the Walrus-like string intro.  There are brilliant exciting instrumentals, softer acoustic tender fusion explorations along the lines of French Transit Express or the great Capricornus by Lubos Andrst and some funkier vocal tracks.  And of course the throwaway pop hit The Clapping Song which is the most annoying piece of music I ever heard, until I heard the 1987 Hi-Band Entertainment record later that day, sorry to those who might enjoy it.  For the more hyperactive we have The Whole of Tomorrow:

While for the clinically depressed (of which there are now so many of course), Amy in May:

Mention should be made of the 1983 album Master Format, with its remarkably gentle acoustic guitar and piano playing some very sweet and tender melodies, no evidence of the late year except the nod to non-fusion jazz.  Witness, Distant Friends:

There are two albums called Brave New World, one that has Hawkshaw as well, but after listening to it I don't think I'll try too hard to get the other one, this one (the one with the exclamation point at the end).