News: Smoke​-​Blackened Walls & Curlews - Incoming limited CD

Available now while stocks last for the very first time on limited edition CD, Graham Collier's portrait of The West Riding. A series of compositions originally commissioned for the 1970 Bradford Arts Festival. Includes bonus unreleased session 'Where Will They Put The Blue Plaque Now?' https://britprogjazz.bandcamp.com/album/smoke-blackened-walls-curlews

1.Part 1: The Good Companions 05:31
2.Part 2: In a Manufacturing Town 05:47
3.Part 3: Pennines In April 04:13
4.Part 4: Wind 04:24
5.Part 5: Old Established Bradford Mill Owners 02:34 video
6.Part 6: The Horses 03:39

about
Recorded in London, July 1971.
Previously unissued. Stereophonic sound.
Compositions originally commissioned for the 1970 Bradford Arts Festival. Graham Collier's portrait of The West Riding, one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England.

‘Surprisingly enough, program music is not all that common in jazz. For example, unlike their classical counterparts, not many jazz composers have set out to evoke particular places. Duke Ellington’s 'Tone Parallel To Harlem' is one of the great exceptions. Britain has been even more neglected, unless you count Billy Strayhorn’s 'Chelsea Bridge', and that was about Whistler's painting rather than the actual bridge itself.

But the British jazz composer Graham Collier is one who is doing something about this. In 1969 he presented his ‘London Cries’ at the Camden Festival. Last year he was commissioned to produce a work for the Bradford Festival - the work you’re going to hear now - called 'Smoke-Blackened Walls & Curlews', a title which illustrates the contrast Collier was aiming for between the open Yorkshire countryside and the crowded industrial cities of The West Riding. The composition is not only tighter in style than most of... more
credits
released September 1, 2023


John Carberry - narrator
Harry Beckett - trumpet & flugelhorn
Alan Wakeman - tenor & soprano sax
Bob Sydor - tenor & alto sax
Geoff Castle - piano
Graham Collier - double bass
John 'Chick' Webb - drums

All music composed by Graham Collier ℗ 1970

Original source: Public domain.

Restored and mastered by British Progressive Jazz.

Special thanks to: Fabio Loli, Pat Thomas, Matt Leivers, Kirk Annett, Nigel Atkinson, Simon Keslake, Kelly N. Wiggin, Wayne Duncan, Andrew Naylor. Arno Kolster, Richard Hammond, Wang Xi, Robert Mallett, Mark Huggett, Collin Markum, Stuart Ansell, Dafydd Lewis, Paul Nightingale.