Graham Collier

[jazzkrow]

Can anyone describe Graham Collier's cd "Songs for my Father" just re-released on Disconforme. Dusty Groove described it as late period Blue Note Mobley or Morgan-modal and soulful. Is that an accurate description?

Worth getting?

thanks,

Jeff

[A Lark Ascending]

All of the Colliers are worth getting.

I'm not sure references to Mobley or Morgan are all that helpful. Collier has a soundworld very much his own.

Think the UK jazz-rock world of the late 60s/70s (a very different proposition to the US version); tone down the rock element somewhat. Put in an impressionistic glaze.

Think Kenny Wheeler, John Surman but rather more sinewy.

Oh! And "Songs for My Father" has the glorious Harry Beckett on board, a player who sounds like no-one else. Wonderfully, feathery trumpet and flugelhorn.

I particularly like Colllier's earlier 'Deep Dark Blue Centre' - sounds like a soundtrack to a mid-60s UK existentialist film! Again, quite unique!

Edited June 3, 2004 by Bev Stapleton

[A Lark Ascending]

I just listened to this again on my walkman while waiting for my car to be serviced!

My earlier post might suggest something a bit dreamy. Far from it. If anything the music here, especially towards the end, seems to be strongly influenced by the Coltrane Quartet around 'A Love Supreme' and just after. You can really hear a strong McCoy Tyner influence in John Taylor, something I also hear in early Keith Tippett. Both men very quickly absorbed and moved well past that influence!

Special mention for sax player Alan Wakeman who I know mainly from some excellent Mike Westbrook discs. He's afire on 'Song for my Father'.

[jazzkrow]

Thanks, Bev for your report/review!

[kdd]

Songs for my Father is nice but I prefer Down Another Road, Mosaics, and Portraits myself. While I wouldn't compare this stuff to Mobley or Morgan it does have some of it's roots there and it is interesting music.