James Graham Collier (21 February 1937 – 9 September 2011) was an English jazz bassist, bandleader and composer.

Life and career

Born in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...

, Northumberland, England, on leaving school Collier joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

as a musician, spending three years in Hong Kong. He subsequently won a '' Down Beat'' magazine scholarship to the Berklee School of Music, Boston, studying with Herb Pomeroy and was its first British graduate in 1963. On his return to Britain he founded the first version of an ensemble devoted to his own compositions, Graham Collier Music, which included

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, Order of Canada, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he w ...

, Harry Beckett and John Surman, and in later line-ups Karl Jenkins, Mike Gibbs,

Art Themen Arthur Edward George Themen (born 26 November 1939) is a British jazz saxophonist and formerly orthopaedic surgeon. Critic John Fordham has described him as "an appealing presence on the British jazz circuit for over 40 years.... Originally a ...

and many other notable musicians. Collier was the first recipient of an Arts Council bursary for jazz and was commissioned by festivals, groups and broadcasters across Europe, North America, Australia and the Far East. He produced 19 albums and CDs of his music and also worked in a wide range of other media: on stage plays and musicals, on documentary and fiction film, and on a variety of radio drama productions. Collier was also an author and educator, having written seven books on jazz, and given lectures and workshops around the world. As Simon Purcell noted, "Jazz education in the UK owes an enormous amount to Graham Collier (alongside Eddie Harvey and Lionel Grigson) without whom our current positions and extent of provision would have been considerably harder to achieve." In 1987, Collier launched the jazz degree course at London's Royal Academy of Music and was its artistic director until he resigned in 1999 to concentrate on his own music. In 1989, he was among the group of jazz educators who formed the International Association of Schools of Jazz, whose magazine, ''Jazz Changes'', he co-edited for seven years. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

in 1987 for his services to jazz. Latterly, Collier lived on a small island in Greece, where he composed, wrote and administered his back catalogue, travelling to present concerts and workshops around the world. His book, ''The Jazz Composer: Moving Music off the Paper'', a philosophical look at jazz and jazz composing, was published by Northway Books in 2005, and his nineteenth CD, ''Directing 14 Jackson Pollocks'', mainly recorded in 2004, was released by the Jazzcontinuum label. He died from heart failure in September 2011.

Television broadcasts

A 1969 edition of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

tv series 'Jazz Scene: At The Ronnie Scott Club' was devoted to Collier, and is one of the earliest examples of British colour television. On July 4 1971 Collier was profiled on the

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

program 'Music in the Round'. The edition was entitled 'Improvisation and all That'. A
extended documentary
and profile of Collier, based around his Hoarded Dreams concert in 1983, was broadcast by

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

on March 6 1985 Official program website
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Works

Discography

*'' Deep Dark Blue Centre'' (Deram, 1967) *'' Hamburg 1968'' (British Progressive Jazz, 2022) *'' Down Another Road'' (Fontana, 1969) *'' Songs for My Father'' (Fontana, 1970) *'' Mosaics'' (Philips, 1971) *'' Portraits'' (Saydisc, 1973) *'' Darius'' (Mosaic, 1974) *'' Midnight Blue'' (Mosaic, 1975) *'' New Conditions'' (Mosaic, 1976) *'' Symphony of Scorpions'' (Mosaic, 1977) *'' The Day of the Dead'' (Mosaic, 1978) *'' Hoarded Dreams'' (Cuneiform, 1983 007 *'' Something British Made in Hong Kong'' (Mosaic, 1985 987 *'' Charles River Fragments'' (Boathouse, 1994 996 *'' Adam's Marble'' (Jazzis, 1995 995 *'' The Third Colour'' (ASC, 1997 999 *'' Winter Oranges'' (Jazzprint, 2000 002 *'' Bread and Circuses'' (Jazzprint, 2001 002 *'' Workpoints'' (Cuneiform, 1968 & 1975, 005 *'' Directing 14 Jackson Pollocks'' (Jazzcontinuum, 2004 009 *'' "Relook": Graham Collier 1937-2011: A Memorial 75th Birthday Celebration'' (Jazzcontinuum, 2012) - posthumous compilation *'' Luminosity - The Last Suites'' (Jazzcontinuum, 2014) - posthumous recording *'' British Conversations'' (My Only Desire Records, 1975 021

Books

* ''Jazz – A Students' and Teachers' Guide'' (Hardback and Paperback, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977) Translated into German, Norwegian and Italian. * ''Inside Jazz'' (Hardback and Paperback, London: Quartet Books, 1973) * ''Compositional Devices'' (Boston, Mass.: Berklee Press Publications, 1975) * ''Cleo and John'' (London: Quartet Books, 1976) * ''Jazz Workshop the Blues'', (Universal Edition 1988) * ''Interaction – opening up the jazz ensemble'' (Tübingen, Advance Books, 1995) * ''the jazz composer, moving music off the paper'' (London: Northway Publications, 2009)

References

Sources

* Martin Kunzler, ''Jazz-Enzyklopädie Vol. 1.'', Rowohlt, Hamburg. , p.230f.

External links

Collier's website (archived)Collier's blog, Jazz Continuum (archived)Interactive website about the book (archived)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Graham 1937 births 2011 deaths Avant-garde jazz double-bassists Berklee College of Music alumni Cuneiform Records artists English jazz bandleaders English jazz composers British male jazz composers English male composers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Tynemouth Musicians from Tyne and Wear