GRAHAM COLLIER
Genres: Progressive Big Band, Classic Fusion, Avant-Garde Jazz, Third Stream, Jazz Education • United Kingdom

Graham Collier's career spanned four decades of innovation at the forefront of British jazz. He was the first British graduate of the Berklee School of Jazz, Boston, and the first jazz composer to receive a commission from the Arts Council of Great Britain. During this time composition, conducting, education and journalism took him around the world. He was born in Tynemouth, England, in 1937. On leaving school he joined the British Army as a musician, spending three years in Hong Kong. He subsequently won a DownBeat magazine scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, studying with Herb Pomeroy and becoming its first British graduate in 1963.  Returning to Britain, he formed the first of many line-ups known as Graham Collier Music, dedicated to performing his own compositions. One critic called his bands a ‘nursery for British jazz talent’, and over the years his line-ups have featured almost read more...