Books, Sax Quartets, and other activities

His work holds the promise of liberating the music and our classrooms like nothing I have encountered in print.

The problem is probably that those who could really benefit from Collier's visions ... will be the last to be open to conceptions such as creativity, new ways of thinking and responsibility.


CopenhagenTalk
Graham Collier has lectured on jazz and jazz composition at various conferences, has written six books, as well as articles and reviews for leading jazz magazines, and for seven years was co-editor of Jazz Changes, the magazine of the International Association of Schools of Jazz.

As can be seen in his jazz compositions detailed elsewhere, he has taken his influences and inspiration from literature – particularly the work of Malcolm Lowry and William Faulkner – and art, where he has paid tribute to Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, and, in two recent suites for saxophone quartet, Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock. He has also written music for radio, television, film and stage.

In all of these activities he has recognised the potential of jazz – it’s ability to be different, while still presenting the best of the individual and of the collective space in which he or she operates.

The first quote above, from a review of Interaction, Opening Up the Jazz Ensemble by Lee Berk in the Jazz Educators’ Journal, has, not surprisingly, failed to happen, proving in its own way the truth behind the second comment from an article about Graham’s work by Danish trombonist and critic Erling Kroner.

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Keep up to date with Graham’s thoughts and writings on jazz, jazz composition, and a variety of other subjects in his interactive blog on the new jazzcontinuum site, which also includes a collection of past articles.

His new book, published in June 2009, is the jazz composer, moving music off the paper, a look at the subject in philosophical terms. See thejazzcomposer.com for more details.