A page devoted to comments and reactions from readers about the book.
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Reviews from print magazines and websites can be found by clicking Reviews above.
Colleges
‘an insightful, intelligent, creative and artful view . . . of jazz composition. It is written and developed for all interested listeners, the novice as well as the performer, and shows the way to the deepest artistic level.’
an endorsement from Justin DiCioccio, Assistant Dean, Jazz Division, Manhattan School of Music
‘A great addition to the literature on composition. There are so few first-person aesthetic narratives on the subject, and your discussion of what I like to think of as the jazz identity crisis (i.e., what is jazz and who are we?) is forthright and raises many fascinating issues.’
George E. Lewis, Case Professor of American Music, Columbia University
‘I have found inspiration and motivation to continue my listening and learning on every page. I very much like the way you discuss the particular inside the larger aesthetic debate… I have put the book on the set list of texts for the MA Composition (all genres).’
Professor Louise Gibbs, Course Leader, MA programme in Music, and Senior Lecturer in Research and Postgraduate Studies (Jazz), Leeds College of Music.
‘It must be the bible for composers studying at the conservatories.’
Erik Moseholm, Artistic director of Swinging Europe/ European Jazz Orchestra, former headmaster of The Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, Denmark
‘I've already asked the MIT Music Library to order a copy of the book, both for intrinsic merit, and because it will prove useful for some of my courses.’
Dr. Mark Harvey, Jazz Studies, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. and Music Director, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra
There is some great discussion-material in it.. I'll definitely be putting it on the school reading-list. There are a lot of points in it which needed to be made.. I don't always agree with them but that's what it's for, right ? ;-)
Hazel Leach, Teacher at the Artez Conservatorium in Arnhem, The Netherlands; arranger, composer and co-leader of the United Women's Orchestra.
Composers and Musicians
‘Composers - take heed! . . . 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.’
an endorsement from Mike Gibbs, jazz composer
‘I’ve only just begun to read the book but already find 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. I’m sure the entire discussion will be most illuminating and stimulating...’
Dr. Mark Harvey, Jazz Studies, MIT, Cambridge, Mass. and Music Director, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra
The book is really great; loads of interesting stuff, things that needed saying and (even a few) things I didn't know. It should be compulsory reading for jazzers, composers and jazz composers.
Geoff Warren, jazz musician and teacher, Italy, and one of my first choice musicians for many years. (He’s also quoted in the book but has no pecuniary interest in it!)
‘A real triumph and [an] important text.’
Raymond MacDonald, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
‘[Your book] has really inspired me to get back into some rigorous work, as a player and composer, to ‘find a better way’, and to make an increased effort towards enlightening students as to the potential of our art.’
Adrian Kelly, musician and educator, Perth, Australia
Critics
‘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.’
an endorsement from Brian Morton, jazz critic, co-editor of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
‘I enjoyed the book very much. I like your whole general approach, which seems sensible [and] gave me a better understanding of some of the movements in modern jazz. And it sent me back to the music, which is always a good sign - to Mingus especially, and your own stuff, which again was interesting when illuminated by your discussion of it in the book.’
James Lincoln Collier, author of books on Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and The Making of Jazz (a friend but no relation).
‘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, author and blogger
‘Thanks for that polemically refreshing view.’
Wolfram Knauer, Director, JazzInstitut Darmstadt
‘Bloody marvelous, even though I wouldn’t agree with everything in it.’ Ray Comiskey, Irish Times jazz critic in a private email
Other Readers
The main thing to say is that I really enjoyed your book as a reading experience. It’s conversational, affectionate, cantankerous, and clearly the work of a man who is denied the refuge of cynicism. And it's full of marvellous up-close writing about music.
I find your model of jazz composition … immensely suggestive and helpful in thinking about what it is I like about the music I like. There are points of detail I’d be inclined to argue with, and I suspect the differences come from the fact that I listen for pleasure, idly, without the same sense of a personal stake. So I remain completely happy to hear ‘Autumn Leaves’ again, if done with enough adventure, or done straight with the right feeling. And completely happy to hear Thad Jones charts played well.
an email from Fergus Barrowman, previously unknown to me, an Editor and Publisher, Victoria University, New Zealand
‘... a valuable insight into the key characteristics of what makes Jazz, Jazz. … A Bloody Good Book!’
A reader’s review on Amazon