Crackles with the intensity of a classic session on
Impulse!
Dusty
Groove (2001)
Mosaics, Theme 6 featuring Harry Beckett and Bob Sydor.
Manuscript. As you will see the music is
sparse to say the least, but the piece is made into a
jazz composition by the way the musicians use the given
starting points. This is one of the areas explored in my
new book the jazz composer, moving music off the
paper.
Another version of this music can be heard on
The Alternate
Mosaics
‘Mosaics
[is], in both versions, the highlight of these
reissues’. Simon
Adams, Jazz
Review
Featuring
Harry Beckett
(trumpet, flugelhorn)
Alan Wakeman (tenor & soprano sax)
Bob Sydor (alto & tenor sax)
Geoff Castle (piano)
John Webb (drums)
Graham Collier (bass)
Recording History
Recorded live in The Torrington, North Finchley, London,
December 1970.
First issued on LP by Philips, 1970
First issued on CD
by Disconforme, 2000
Remastered and repackaged by
BGO records as part of a 2 CD compilation,
2007
Remastered
by Tom Leader of LCL Digital.
The
Tracks
Mosaics Parts 1 to
4
‘In Mosaics
the musicians are
presented with a series of musical fragments. These are
connected by solos and cadenzas but all decisions regarding
who will solo, where each piece should end, and where it
should go next are made by the musicians on the spot. In
other words, although the given material is always the
same, each performance is structured differently. What you
hear is one performance on Tuesday December the 8th,
1970.’ The way of working shown in that quote from
the original liner notes, has become an important part of
my current thinking about jazz composition, as illustrated
in such recent pieces as The Third Colour and
Bread &
Circuses.
Mosaics
was
recorded live in the Torrington pub in North Finchley in
1970 (now, apparently, a Starbucks). We made three
passes through the piece - all different because of the
construction of the composition as well as the
contributions of the soloists - and chose one for the LP.
Tapes of the other performances languished in my attic for
almost 40 years until we decided to license
two tracks for
release on elastic jazz,
sketches of Britain, a compilation of
British jazz from the 60s and 70s released in a CD Book in
2006 by Auditorium Edizioni, Milan.
Duncan
Heining’s review in Jazzwise
called
them “the best two tracks on
the album” which prompted the license of the whole
session to BGO for inclusion in a second package of early
material.
Some
Reviews
Graham
Collier's most adventurous and successful album. An
important and very enjoyable LP.
Alun Morgan,
Jazz
Journal (1971)
An album full of good playing and also of promise for the
future.
Richard
Williams, Melody
Maker (1971)
A
blend of invention and freedom-within-structure which
remains highly satisfying.
Kenny
Matheson, Jazzwise
(2001)
A
wonderfully searching session - filled with warm McCoy
Tyner-esque modal moments, and searing post-Coltrane
solos.
Dusty
Groove (2001)
Collier
was by this time fashioning some distinctive frameworks for
improvisation, and the group as a whole seems so
“bedded
in”
with Collier's work that the result is stimulating
listening of a rarefied order.
Nic Jones,
All About
Jazz (2007), reviewing
the BGO compilation.
The
quote used in the subheading comes from the
Times
Educational Supplement.
Another version of this music can be heard on the
second
BGO
compilation.
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