De Britse gitarist Ray Russell werd vanaf de jaren 80 bekendom melodieuze jazzrock met o.a. drummer Simon Phillips. Rond 1970 maakte hij een intrigerende freejazz-periode door, gesublimeerd op dit album uit 1970. ""Rites And Rituals" focuses solely on exploration and power. The only player holding the floor in this band was bassist Daryl Runswick. Russell was into playing the hell out of his guitar, employing effects combining scales in angular, edgy ways and trying to undo the notion of time. Drummer Alan Rushton never played slower than double-time and often threw all notions of tempo and meter into the dustbin to make room for a 'pure rhythm', one that danced alongside a soloist rather that provided his pulse. Inside the line was the deep funk groove that the horns created and Russell painted with fat, stabbing chords. The four pieces are journeys into that anger and into the question of how improvisation could engage jazz but be free of its historical entanglements." (T. Jurek, Allmusic; 4 uit 5 sterren)
"As fierce and fiery as any trumpet and flügelhorn stylist yet capable of stirring lyricism, Harry Beckett was an integral part of Britain's jazz community following his arrival from Barbados in 1954 when he was 19 until his death in 2010. Rightly dubbed a jazzman, Beckett was nonetheless a diverse player eager to contribute to many musical scenarios. During the '90s, Beckett contributed to some iconic recordings. That's his trumpet break on the single "Erzulie" from Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart's Rising Above Bedlam. He also released his own Passion & Possession for ITM in 1991, an important series of duet recordings with pianists Django Bates, Keith Tippett, and Joachim Kuhn. The pianists, Pine, bassist Jean-Francois Jenny Clark, and Jarvis all appeared on Beckett's 1992 West Wind date, Les Jardins Du Casino." (Allmusic)
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