Two concerts from a Golden Age of British Jazz.
An intoxicating scent from the time when British jazz was
in full bloom.
Rigo
Dittmann, Bad
Alchemy
Workpoints Part Two featuring Henry Lowther and Harry
Beckett
Workpoints was
written under the first bursary ever given to a jazz
composer by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The
performance heard here was the premiere and generated the
comment from Downbeat used in
the subheading, as well as The Melody Maker making the
claim that ‘Charles Mingus, one of Collier's heroes,
would have enjoyed this tremendously’.
Featuring
CD1
Workpoints,
Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett, Henry Lowther (trumpet,
flugelhorn)
Dave Aaron, John Surman, Karl Jenkins (saxophones)
Chris Smith, Mike Gibbs, John Mumford (trombone)
Frank Ricotti (vibes)
John Marshall (drums)
Graham Collier (bass, leader)
CD2
Live in Middleheim
Harry Beckett
(trumpet, flugelhorn)
Art Themen (tenor and soprano sax)
Ed Speight (guitar)
Roger Dean (piano, electric piano)
John Webb (drums)
Graham Collier (bass, leader)
Recording History
Workpoints,
recorded in concert in Southampton, England, March 1968
Live in Middleheim, recorded in concert in Middleheim,
Belgium, August 1975
First issued as a double CD on Cuneiform Records in 2005
Mixed and mastered
by Tom Leader of LCL Digital
The
Tracks
CD1 Workpoints
CD2
Little
Ben
Under the Pier
Darius Parts One, Three and Four, and Part One Reprise
Clear Moon
Mackerel Sky.
Some Reviews
Bassist,
composer and conductor Graham Collier catalysed all these
[1960s] energies like no other. Roughly put, his formation
was to jazz what Alexis Korner’s was for The Rolling
Stones or Cream: a nursery of incomparable talent.
Philippe
Robert, Inrockuptibles
For UK jazz listeners, even of a generation not yet born
when this music was made, the quality of the improvising
from familiar British musicians in their prime may be a
fascinating revelation.
John
Fordham, The
Guardian
An
inspiring work ... Much recommended.
Simon
Adams, Jazz Journal
International
Great
music all round.
Duncan Heining, JazzWise
What
a line-up it was! Here were improvisers unafraid to fathom
uncharted waters, the perfect cohorts for Collier, who left
the middle open for the musicians to stamp the work in
their own cast.
Jerry
d’Souza, AllAboutJazz.com
The
volatile specter of Mingus looms over Collier’s
work-part work, which juxtaposes frequently poignant scored
passages and seam-ripping improvisations, punctuated by
hollering riffs and ensemble eruptions.
Bill
Shoemaker, www.pointofdeparture.org
It’s
not only because of his profile as
composer/bassist/bandleader that Collier can be compared to
Charles Mingus—there’s something of the great
composer’s sanctified sound in Collier’s
writing too. The music strikes a remarkable balance between
composition and improvisation.
James
Beaudreau, One Final
Note
Overall,
there’s a lot to be gained by listening to
Collier’s innovative inclinations that show no hint
of anything that would be considered dated or passé.
It’s hot stuff for the mind and soul! (Vigorously
recommended.)
Glenn
Astarita, JazzReview.com
Collier’s
music – rather like a free version of early Charles
Mingus – continued to embrace long-form pan-tonal
compositional frameworks, angular and dissonant yet with a
natural, even-toed penchant for measuring and tempering
that freedom that frameworks provide. He has also
maintained a constancy of direction throughout a career
that is still going strong to this day.
Dan
Warburton, Paris
Transatlantic
Connected
in spirit if not form with Charles Mingus, their
fragmentary composed parts and their solo and collective
improvisations are all about degrees of adventurism.
Frank-John Hadley,
Downbeat
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