I-m Ray Carless and it-s a real pleasure for me to be able to interface with so many interesting and talented people out there in cyber-space.Please check me out because my purpose within this space is to meet you musically spiritually and hopefully socially. Please take your time to investigate this site while I continue to build this space to accurately portray my vibes & music. I think that there is always a slim chance that you may like something here. Its good to be positive and optimistic because you may have a track that I could bless with my magical flavour and vibes. We-re all chasing recognition and I-m flexible. I-ve played on a couple of hit records but don-t ask me to play like any other players..I only do Ray Carless and I love to play my saxophone MY WAY..Tenor & Soprano saxes are the horns with which i feel most comfortable.Yes, we all love music and we are all striving to share and promote with each other as best as we can for the benefit of the inhabitants of this strange but beautiful Planet Earth.Let me tell you about myself and the current path of my music.My Most recent recording project is the LEISURE ISLAND RUB CD. This music evolved from a nice neighbourly liaison with my mate/drummie Anthony Jones. We had no time to waste cos my dad was terminally ill so we took both our Christian names, Ray & Anthony to officially name the project/band..The band Ray Anthony Band.Please take a look at the CD cover and you will surely notice the intensely colourful tropical shirts that me and Anthony are sporting. Well.. our music is slightly less intense but substantially more colourful. As I said previously we were both extremely busy at the time of the recording but I was desperate to finish this album quickly because I wanted to make a CD that was unpretentious and enjoyable. I was bored witha lot of things in London (too few gigs?), and most notably the limitations of the jazz scene in the United Kingdom. How can you promote jazz without a jazz friendly radio station. The answer is -WITH GREAT DIFFICULTY. I was aching to get the creative process back on board but I wanted to make real groovy music that was soulful & infectious and accessible to all age groups of the greater public.I really wanted the listener to lose sense of time and place in the sunny melodius rhythms that wee were churning out. I think that we succeeded because this CD just reeks of the perfumed tropical paradise that many of you have lived in or visited. The tracks were created to make you FEEL and MOVE like a palm tree in the TROPICAL SEA BREEZE. This is smooth Caribbean Jazz at its most communicative. There-s nothing too fancy about it, it just NICE SIMPLE DANCE RIDDIM with a sprinkling of JAZZ. My favourite tracks are :1. Sunset Blues _ a beautiful melancholic melody, I want you to close your eyes, listen to the music and just imagine that you are sitting in the cool breezy sunset of your favourite tropical paradise, and you-re just reminising about loved ones far & near.2. Midnight Hurricane_ creates a picture of the calm before the storm.you've drank too much of the local punch at lunchtime and you are snoozing with this moody rootsy hot stepper riddim in the background as the warm rain arrives like a cool shower.3. Daydreaming_ is a track that I cannot find appropriate words to describe. I'm still waiting for the right words to come my way because this song really gives me VIBES..Please let me know if you get the same reaction..do you hear and feel the sexy suggestive insinuations in the tone of the haunting smoochie mellow tenor sax?4. Jammin_ is a cheeky mix of popular hits from both Bob Marley and Kevin Little.5. No Hard Food_ is an attempt to share some of the flavours that I inherited during years when I was gigging with Afro outfits and artistes like Hugh Masakelu, Du Du Pukuwanas- Zila, Township Express from South Africa, Kojo Antwi, Boombaya, Daddy Lumba & Kwame Yeboah from Ghana, , Bundhu Boys from Zimbabwe, Manu Dibango from Ivory Coast etc..6. I could go on and on but I need to stop now because I'm boring myself. Please tell me what tracks turn you on.. You may feel a vibe to remix or add a vocal. Send email to both & [email protected]"This is the kind of jazz/reggae that sounds great powering out of your hi-fi on a Summer Sunday afternoon. Chilled and beautifully played, 'Leisure Island Rub' is a cool slice of Caribbean sunshine which would sound as good spilling out onto the steamy streets of London as it would drifting across a palm-fringed beach from the local beach café. The reggae edge to the music has more presence than you'll find in the average jazz/reggae release and there's a powerful dancehall element carrying most tunes, lifting them to a dance pace should the listener feel so inspired. "
Got my Layout from 123mycodes.com"Ray Carless is one of the finest saxophone players on the contemporary UK scene, his style is very lyrical and his phrasing always on the one. Ray has followed in his father George's footsteps and become a much sought-after session player (dad played with the legendary Fela Kuti amongst others), we could list a few of those he's played with but the review might get a bit overlong...Ray is currently touring Europe with 'SKA CUBANO', a Cuban Jamaican mix of Latin and Ska. This hot new blend that's cutting through the festival scene, try not to miss them.(www.skacubano.com) ""Anthony Jones is a Guyana-born multi-instrumentalist, one of those guys who can turn his hand to just about any instrument and make it sound like it's what he's best at. Here he plays drums, percussion, keyboards, guitar, he even takes lead vocal on 'Mr Melody', 'Daydreaming', 'No hard food', 'In the Caribbean' & 'Cool, cool life'.
The album mixes vocal and instrumental tracks and features vocalists Dennis Alcapone (a hilarious update on the 'Elizabethan Reggae' theme), future star Delroy Pinnock, whose performance on the title track shows much promise, and backing vocals from Angela Scott-Walker. So sit back, get the shades on and, whether you're baking in Brixton or chilling in Kingston, enjoy the grooves from one of the finest pairings on the contemporary dance scene. ".. -- -- Copied from MySpace.com --
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