Graham Collier

[Darius]

jazzcontinuum.com, the web site of veteran British jazz composer Graham Collier is now relaunched with a new design and new content. The new content includes 14 audio samples from his various records linked to downloadable PDFs of the music which the players started from.

To mark the availability of all Graham Collier recordings as digital downloads from such on-line companies as iTunes and eMusic, there is also an 8 minute free download featuring long-time Collier collaborator Harry Beckett. This comes from a previously unreleased alternate version of ‘Mosaics’, recorded on the same night as the highly praised LP from 1970.

http://www.jazzcontinuum.com

[sidewinder]

Thanks for the advisory !

[mjazzg]

latest BGO reissue now available

The Day of the Dead/October Ferry/Symphony of Scorpions/Forest Path to the Spring

http://www.bgo-records.com/details_divs.asp?CatalogNo=BGOCD1028

The website blurb describes how Collier was involved, altering tracklisting (seems a shame that they couldn't edit the text to recognise his death).

The rest of this series has been essential listening in my house

Such a shame it's a posthumous release

[Head Man]

latest BGO reissue now available

The Day of the Dead/October Ferry/Symphony of Scorpions/Forest Path to the Spring

http://www.bgo-records.com/details_divs.asp?CatalogNo=BGOCD1028

The website blurb describes how Collier was involved, altering tracklisting (seems a shame that they couldn't edit the text to recognise his death).

I've e-mailed BGO asking that the text be amended.

[Pete C]

I only discovered his music about a year ago, with Songs for My Father, and have listened to a bunch since. What a talent, and I was unaware of him for close to 40 years of my jazz-listening life.

[jazzbo]

I've slowly been exploring his music over the last six or seven years. What a talent. Rest in peace Graham.

[A Lark Ascending]

Tip of the iceberg.

Part of a wonderful generation of British or British resident composers for larger groups in many styles - Westbrook, Gibbs, Tippett, Ardley etc.

[Clunky]

Any recommendations for his later works??

I'd ordered a couple of his BGO 2CDs just a couple of days before he died and really like what I've heard. He used Harry Beckett's trumpet to great advantage.

[A Lark Ascending]

All of what I've heard is very impressive - Charles River Fragments and the Jackson Pollock discs really hit home.

[mjazzg]

Any recommendations for his later works??

I'd ordered a couple of his BGO 2CDs just a couple of days before he died and really like what I've heard. He used Harry Beckett's trumpet to great advantage.

recently purchased Winter Oranges with The Danish radio Big Band. Great clarity in the writing and some impressive playing. Looking forward to Charles River Fragments as next purchase. there appears to me such a strong compositional voice threading through everything I've heard thus far

[sidewinder]

Any recommendations for his later works??

I'd ordered a couple of his BGO 2CDs just a couple of days before he died and really like what I've heard. He used Harry Beckett's trumpet to great advantage.

Try to get hold of that 'Jazzwise' DVD of the Collier band at the Derby Fest a few years ago, in a lineup in which Harry Beckett is prominently featured. About 20 minutes of the disk (which covers what was on at Derby that year) is of the Collier band. I'll be digging it out today.

Also - to get a better feel for the later works Jazz Library on BBC Radio 3 currently has the full Collier interview up for listening - essential stuff.

Will be putting in my order for the new BGO compilation. All of those are really fine - good sound and very informative notes.

[A Lark Ascending]

Always find it interesting that, despite sharing many extremely distinctive soloists, the music of Collier, Westbrook et al always sounds individually unique - a mark of their compositional skills. Collier seems to lean more towards 60s mainstream modality than the others (not a criticism) - Westbrook's theatre/folk/contemporary classical influences go somewhere very different whilst after the first couple of albums Tippett goes much further out on a limb. The 'rock' influence doesn't seem as strong in Collier as in early Westbrook/Tippett and much Gibbs and Ardley. Possibly a bit closer to Garrick though Collier always sounds more searching to my ears.

[Pete C]

AThe 'rock' influence doesn't seem as strong in Collier as in early Westbrook/Tippett and much Gibbs and Ardley.

Perhaps, but I first heard him when my Pandora Soft Machine station played a track from Songs for My Father.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Pete C

[A Lark Ascending]

AThe 'rock' influence doesn't seem as strong in Collier as in early Westbrook/Tippett and much Gibbs and Ardley.

Perhaps, but I first heard him when my Pandora Soft Machine station played a track from Songs for My Father.

Might have been a musician thing. Karl Jenkins is on those early Colliers and was later in Soft Machine.

It's also worth noting that the Soft Machine of Third to Fifth rarely locked into the steady groove of most jazz-rock/fusion. I can hear a similarity of overall sound between Collier and that SM era - but neither stiffen up with the more unrelenting rock beat.

Gibbs and Ardley in particular seem to connect more to Nucleus who were much more groove driven (and also shared the revolving door of musicians).

Edited October 8, 2011 by A Lark Ascending