Graham Collier

Composer. English composer Graham Collier was the first British student to graduate from Berklee College of Music. Collier won a scholarship in 1961, after playing more than seven years in an army band. He toured briefly in 1963 with the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra playing bass, then returned to England where he formed the Graham Collier Ensemble. This group through the '60s,'70s and '80s has contained many of Britain's finest musicians, gathered to play Collier's original compositions. It's varied in size and personnel; some alumni include Harry Beckett, Kenny Wheeler and John Surman. Collier established a big band, Hoarded Dreams, in 1983. It debuted at the Bracknell Jazz Festival with a lineup bolstered by such special guests as Ted Curson and Manfred Schoof. Then the next year he began a rehearsal ensemble that late became the nucleus of the group Loose Tubes. Collier became a professor and eventually director of jazz studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen in 1987 for contributions to jazz, and has also written music for several plays, films and television, plus authored a number of books. Since 1974, Collier has owned and managed Britain's now defunct Mosaic label, not to be confused with America's premier reissue operation. Collier was also a founder member and member of the board of the International Association of Schools of Jazz and ran its magazine, Jazz Changes, for seven years until it publication ended in 2000. Collier now lives in southern Spain and continues to compose and tour internationally. Recent projects have included work with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra and the NDR Big Band, and concerts throughout Europe and in the USA and Australia. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide