A Classic Conversation
Great British bandleader Graham Collier’s no-nonsense style shines in this 1970s gem
Graham Collier
British Conversations
Harry Beckett (trumpet), Ed Speight (guitar); Swedish Radio Jazz Group/graham Collier My Only Desire MOD004CD
Composer, bandleader, educator and writer Graham Collier was and remains one of the most significant contributors to the development of British jazz, although his purposeful approach tended to keep him out of such limelight as the music is afforded. When I quizzed him on this at one point during the 1980s he simply smiled, mentioned some recent projects and then revealed his appointment as the founding director of the then new jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music. ‘I’m happy!’ he concluded with cheery conviction. The same sense of here-and-now engagement was always present in his work and certainly applies to this spaciously recorded 1975 Swedish radio commission. Encompassing a range of moods and styles with a no-nonsense modernist tilt, this five-movement suite (Collier always worked best on a large canvas) draws some remarkable work from his soloists as it flows between energetic drive and abstract, almost capricious sections that nonetheless never lose sight of their own logic. Wonderful listening and an invaluable document. ★★★★★