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| Six Jackson Pollocks and 14 More Six Jackson Pollocks and 14 more November sees the Swiss premiere for Memories Arrested in Space, a suite for saxophone quartet, commissioned by the Zurich based group Quadrosax, inspired by six Jackson Pollock paintings from 1947. Publication of the suite is under discussion with Advance Music who published Graham's four saxophone quartet pieces inspired by Paul Klee. November also sees the London premiere of From Acorns... featuring the East Midlands Youth jazz Orchestra and Harry Beckett. Commissioned for the 25th anniversary of Derby Jazz earlier this year, the piece will be performed on the afternoon of November 24th on the Barbican Free Stage as part of the London Jazz Festival's Derby Day. BGO recently released three classic Graham Collier LPs - Down Another Road, Mosaics, Songs for My Father - in a two CD package with new notes by Alyn Shipton covering Graham's whole career. In the pipeline for the Spring of 2008 is the release of a second package which will include Deep Dark Blue Centre, Portraits and a previously unheard alternate version of Mosaics. Jazztronik, the Japanese DJ/producer, has included Down Another Road in his Kind of Jazz compilation. On the surface this is good news and expectations are high that Universal Japan will recognise that Graham owns the rights to this track and pay him accordingly... While in London Graham will be mixing 14 Jackson Pollocks, recorded by Graham's Celebration Band during the 2004 London Jazz Festival. The record, whose title comes from a comment about the concert from an audience member, includes two major works, Forty Years On, a relook at many of Graham's compositions during his forty-year career, and The Vonetta Factor, commissioned by Birmingham Jazz in 2004. The double CD will also include The Alternate Third Colour, a previously unreleased performance of his 1997 Arts Council commission. The inclusion of alternate versions of these compositions reflects Graham's philosophy which can be summed up in the phrase 'jazz happens in real time, once'. This means that the alternate versions contain not only new solos, but also new backgrounds and new overall structures. How this is achieved is discussed in the final part of his new book, The Jazz Composer, Moving Music Off the Paper, which presents a mainly philosophical look at the largely misunderstood subject of jazz composition. Publication, by Northway Books, is due in early 2009, simultaneous with the release of the 14 Jackson Pollocks CD and the launch of an interactive website containing audio examples, links to other sites and more. Discussion are already underway with regard to an Italian translation. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |