Coming in 2010 and 2011
Later this year
there will be a tour of the east coast of Canada and the
U.S. as well as work in Europe, including an appearance at
The London Jazz Festival.
In 2011 a return visit is being discussed to the Debrecen
Jazz Festival in Hungary. This will include a commission
for a new work to be played by the Budapest Jazz Orchestra.
Discussions have started for events marking Graham’s
75th birthday year in 2012 including a possible commission
for the London Jazz Festival. There is also talk of a visit
to South Africa, Graham’s first.
And BGO have agreed to continue with their re-issue
programme of Graham’s earlier records. Due this
autumn will be a specially priced double CD package
containing Symphony of
Scorpions and
The Day
of the Dead, both highly
praised works inspired by Malcolm Lowry, author of Under
the Volcano.
memories arrested in
space, six compositions for
saxophone quartet inspired by Jackson Pollock paintings
from 1947, are now in the process of being published by
Advance Music.
An alternate version of Workpoints - the critically acclaimed
composition from 1968 written under the first bursary
given to a jazz composer by the Arts Council of Great
Britain - has recently been discovered. The original is
being remastered prior to its digital release on eMusic,
and the Alternate will follow in due course.
As one AAJ correspondent wrote: ‘Another version
of Workpoints will be great. The version I
have already is one of the most remarkable pieces of music
I've ever heard, and if this one is better that will be
marvellous.’
Praise for
the jazz composer, moving music off the
paper
One of the best, if not the best, summations of
what jazz & jazz composing are supposed to be.
Jakko Tahkolahti, jazz critic and
broadcaster, Finland
Bloody
Marvellous, but I don't agree with everything in
it. Ray
Comiskey, Irish Times.
A
great addition to the literature on
composition. George E. Lewis
This
is an important book. Doug Ramsey,
Rifftides
On
any short list of the most polemical writers in jazz today,
he is fighting for the top spot. Ted Gioia,
jazz.com
For
more about the book click on the title and be taken to the
book's dedicated interactive website.
Praise for
directing 14
Jackson Pollocks
In the best CDs of 2009 lists in Jazz Journal (Simon
Adams, Anthony Troon and Bob Weir), Jazzwise (Duncan
Heining) and Village Voice (Chris Kelsey) and picked in
eMusic’s notable new releases, August
2009.
The
Vonetta Factor is one of the most genuinely modern big band
compositions to come out of Britain for twenty years.
Duncan Heining,
Jazzwise
A
visionary and inspired work that’s utterly unlike any
big band album released since the death of Gil
Evans. Chris Kelsey
Among
the most exhilarating, sensual, beautiful and disturbing
performances in this era’s jazz.
Ray Comiskey,
The Irish Times
Collier
reaches distillation of the notion that the orchestra, the
written music and the improvising soloist comprise a
trinity, each element inseparable from the
other. Doug Ramsey,
Rifftides
Once
again Collier's remarkable vision as a composer and
Machiavellian mixer of the musical maelstrom comes
arrestingly to the fore … the sum of these two CDs
illustrates a talent long recognised as unique in world
jazz by those who relish the art of the
unpredictable. Anthony Troon, Jazz
Journal,
October 2009
Celebrate
with two full length downloadable extracts
Click on the title above to be taken to the dedicated page
to read more reviews while you listen to the
downloads.
Praise for the third BGO compilation of classic Collier
material
Darius,
Midnight Blue
and
New Conditions
were released in
October 2009 as the third in BGO’s
chronological 2CD compilations
of Graham Collier
recordings.
‘A
classy reissue.’ Duncan
Heining, Jazzwise
‘Culturally
aware and technically astute.’
Brian
Morton, The
Wire
‘It
never fails to astonish me that in pieces like these, we
are listening to music recorded more than a quarter of a
century ago that’s still challenging and uplifting
despite the seduction of ‘new things’ in jazz.
In fact I feel a thread linking the spirit of Jelly Roll
Morton to Mingus to Collier in the vivacity and drive of
these pieces. … An irresistible
reissue.’
Anthony
Troon, Jazz
Journal
Penguin praise
Hoarded Dreams and Workpoints are both in the top four star category which signifies ‘an outstanding record… a splendid example of the artist’s work.’ Four of the others – Deep Dark Blue Centre, Darius, New Conditions and Symphony of Scorpions – get three and a half stars signifying ‘an excellent record with some exceptional music’, while eight more, given three stars, ‘will reward the listener tuned to [their] merits’.
The montage on the
home page draws music from many of these albums. In order:
Portraits (1973), Deep Dark Blue Centre (1967), New
Conditions (1976), Bread and Circuses (2003), Adams Marble
(1995), Symphony of Scorpions (1977), Darius (1974),
Something British Made in Hong Kong (1987), Midnight Blue
(1975), Hoarded Dreams (recorded 1983, released
2007).
Elsewhere on the web
Graham Collier’s view is that the only healthy
way to look at jazz is as a continuum in a constant state
of interaction between its past and its future, and between
the traditions of the music and the creativity of its
artists. Keep up to date with Graham's thoughts
at
jazzcontinuum.com
Read more about his new book,
the jazz composer, moving music off the
paper,
at the dedicated interactive website
thejazzcomposer.com