A previously unreleased version of “Mosaics," Graham Collier's highly acclaimed composition from 1969 will be released on September 2nd, as part of a second compilation of Graham's early music on BGO. Also on the double CD will be a previously unknown stereo version of Deep Dark Blue Centre, his first record, and Portraits. The “Alternate Mosaics" was recorded live, on the same night as the original, in The Torrington, North Finchley, London, then a famous jazz pub, now apparently a Starbucks. “Mosaics" was recorded several times that evening because, as the original liner notes said, “the composition's form is such that all decisions regarding who will solo, where each piece should end, and where it should go next are made by the musicians on the spot. In other words, although the given material is always the same, each performance is structured differently."
Alyn Shipton, in liner notes for the new compilation, draws attention to the “sense of connectivity between ['The Alternate Mosaics'] and the issued version of the piece. In some senses this release concludes a previously unfinished chapter after a wait of almost forty years." Speaking of the other two albums included in the BGO 2-CD compilation he says the stereo version of Deep Dark Blue Centre “has allowed us to hear even more detail and nuance in the music than previously," and that the title track of Portraits is “one of my personal favourites in the entire Collier canon."
A 2007 comment on Deep Dark Blue Centre by Doug Ramsey, from his blog Rifftides: “around for forty years but it is as fresh as last week." And from Coda Magazine's original review of Portraits: “Immaculate... Demonstrates anew Collier's prowess as writer and catalyst."
Alyn Shipton, in liner notes for the new compilation, draws attention to the “sense of connectivity between ['The Alternate Mosaics'] and the issued version of the piece. In some senses this release concludes a previously unfinished chapter after a wait of almost forty years." Speaking of the other two albums included in the BGO 2-CD compilation he says the stereo version of Deep Dark Blue Centre “has allowed us to hear even more detail and nuance in the music than previously," and that the title track of Portraits is “one of my personal favourites in the entire Collier canon."
A 2007 comment on Deep Dark Blue Centre by Doug Ramsey, from his blog Rifftides: “around for forty years but it is as fresh as last week." And from Coda Magazine's original review of Portraits: “Immaculate... Demonstrates anew Collier's prowess as writer and catalyst."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
