Graham Collier RIP

Although a contemporary of such figures as Mike Westbrook, Neil Ardley and Howard Riley, who emerged in the 1960s to form a remarkable generation of British jazz composers, Collier remained doggedly aloof from the trends of the time. Where others experimented with rock rhythms, electronic effects or theatrical presentation, he concentrated on expanding the possibilities of the traditional jazz orchestra.
James Graham Collier was born at Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, on February 21 1937. Having learned the trumpet as a teenager, he joined an Army band on leaving school in 1954. As his required second instrument he took up the double bass, and this later became his principal instrument.
In 1961 Collier won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1963 he became the first Briton to graduate from this, the most prestigious jazz school in the world. He then worked for a while as bassist with the band led by veteran saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey.
Returning to Britain in late 1963, Collier formed his own band, Graham Collier Music, principally to play his own compositions. This ensemble survived in various constantly changing forms for around two decades, and featured some of the country’s finest players. A young member of his very first band was the reed player Karl Jenkins, who later composed of the popular works Adiemus and The Armed Man.
In 1968 Collier won an Arts Council bursary for his composition Workpoints, and in so doing initiated a profound change in the way jazz is perceived in Britain. Hitherto regarded as a branch of popular music, ephemeral and undeserving of official notice, it had suddenly gained a small foothold in the cultural Establishment.
In the years following this achievement, both public funding and academic study became an accepted part of the British jazz scene, although by no means universally applauded. There are many who look upon such things as inimical to the spirit of jazz.
Collier’s most unexpected success, however, was evidence of his continuing love of the free, improvised nature of his chosen music. This triumph began in the mid-1980s, and was the result of a workshop which he set up to give young musicians big-band experience. Once assembled, however, the players took charge, discarding the conventional organisation of a jazz orchestra and generally turning the whole scheme on its head.
The result was Loose Tubes, a conglomeration (up to 21-strong at times) of brilliant, mischievous characters which lit up the London jazz scene for the best part of a decade. Its leading spirit, Django Bates, gave Collier full credit for instigating the band’s creativity: “Graham had sensed there was something exciting in the air and, in the spirit of improvisation, he captured the moment.”
In its unique way, Loose Tubes embodied Collier’s approach to jazz composition, which was to lay out the main elements and leave as much as possible to the inspiration of the moment. The last of his six books, published in 2009, was entitled The Jazz Composer: Moving Music Off The Paper.
The success of Loose Tubes only added to a burgeoning reputation. Allied to his qualities of persistence and self-belief, this made Collier the ideal candidate to become the Royal Academy of Music’s first jazz director. He held the post from 1986 until his retirement in 1999.
Particularly well received among his own works were Day of the Dead (1978), based on Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under The Volcano, and his music for the Radio 3 adaptation of Josef Skvorecky’s novella The Bass Saxophone (1989), which won a Sony Award.
Graham Collier was appointed OBE in 1987. In 1999 he moved to Ronda, in Spain, and in 2008 to the Aegean island of Skopelos.
He is survived by his partner, the writer John Gill.
@'The Telegraph'
Condolences to John...