the jazz composer, moving music off the paper
an important new book from jazz composer Graham Collier, published by Northway Books.
Dedicated to Herb Pomeroy (1930–2007), who influenced my music in a way that few others have done, teaching me that it is the musicians in front of you who are important, not the rules, or even the notes that you have written.
The book is not an exhaustive survey, detailing the life and works of every jazz composer who ever lived, not even just the famous ones. It’s a philosophical look at the phrase ‘the jazz composer’, what it means in jazz, what it means for jazz, what it can mean for the future of jazz.
Part One, defining the situation
Part Two, showing the way
Part Three, rediscovering the potential
Part Four, skinning the cat,
Part Five, directing 14 Jackson Pollocks
This website is designed to be interactive with the book. The pages listed in the menu above are updated when necessary and in time there will be a page giving access to more information on the books and CDs mentioned.
Extracts from reviews and comments about the jazz composer - click on the menu items above to see more
‘Bloody marvelous, even though I wouldn’t agree with everything in it.’
Ray Comiskey, Irish Times jazz critic
‘Thanks for that polemically refreshing view.’
Wolfram Knauer, Director, JazzInstitut Darmstadt
‘A real triumph and [an] important text.’
Raymond MacDonald, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
‘challenge[s] any thinking musician who wants to write jazz compositions which exemplify both parts of that loaded phrase.’
Ken Waxman, Jazzword
‘[A] mindstorm of a book.’
Chris Searle, The Morning Star
‘This is an important book.’
Doug Ramsey, Rifftides
‘On any short list of the most polemical writers in jazz today, he is fighting for the top spot.’
Ted Gioia, jazz.com
‘May well infuriate as many readers as it delights, but compellingly readable as it is, it is unlikely to leave anyone indifferent.’
Chris Parker, Vortex Jazz Club
‘Written and developed for all interested listeners, the novice as well as the performer, and shows the way to the deepest artistic level.’
Justin DiCioccio, Manhattan School of Music
‘A great addition to the literature on composition.’
George E. Lewis, Columbia University
‘I have found inspiration and motivation to continue my listening and learning on every page.’
Professor Louise Gibbs, Leeds College of Music
‘It must be the bible for composers studying at the conservatories.’
Erik Moseholm, former head of the RMC, Copenhagen
‘If you're confident in your compositional devices – take the challenge to have your foundations soundly rattled. If you're searching for a methodology to follow or guide you, it could well lie here.’
Mike Gibbs, jazz composer
‘a perspective congenial to my own …that jazz must be open to expansive and exploratory approaches to further the cause of creative music and to maintain integrity with all that has come before.’
Dr. Mark Harvey, Jazz Studies, MIT
‘Collier . . . makes music that speaks directly, strongly personal but in no way self-dramatising . . . It's reassuring to learn that when he turns to prose, the same qualities are in place.’
Brian Morton, jazz critic, co-editor of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
‘One of the best, if not the best, summations of what jazz and jazz composing are supposed to be.’
Jakko Tahkolahti, jazz critic and broadcaster, Finland
‘When I say composing, I use it in the Graham Collier sense (read his book!).’
Chris Kelsey, musician and author
Graham Collier, born in Tynemouth, England in 1937, is a highly regarded jazz composer, whose music has been compared to that of Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Gil Evans. He was the first British graduate of the Berklee School of Music, and the first recipient of an Arts Council jazz bursary. He is the author of several previous books on jazz, and for 12 years was artistic director of the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music. He currently lives in Greece, where he continues to compose, travelling from there to present concerts and workshops around the world. More on Graham at his website, or jazzcontinuum, his blog and collection of previous writings.
Northway Books are publishers of books on jazz and drama. These include Workout - the Music of Hank Mobley by Derek Ansell, The Little Giant - The Story of Johnny Griffin by Mike Hennessey, and a new edition of Ian Carr’s classic text Music Outside, Contemporary Jazz in Britain.
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