Graham Collier obituary

Composer and educator who played an important part in raising the status of British jazzThe jazz composer Graham Collier liked quoting an old friend's description of watching him handle a big band – like someone "directing 14 Jackson Pollocks". However, Collier, who has died of a stroke aged 74, was not a monumental composer by the standards of colossi such as Duke Ellington. But if he was a step behind, he was a quietly combative, thoughtful, subtle and often eloquent practitioner, able to wr...

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