Jazz at its very best: Graham Collier, The Last Suites

It's been quite some time since I listened to my favourite Duke Ellington and Charlie Mingus vinyl albums.

I've just received a double CD of two suites which are undoubtedly in the same league as the best compositions of those two giants of jazz. Superlative music and a mind-blowing ensemble. A great discovery. Let the music play!

"Luminosity", Graham Collier, The Last Suites.

Disc One: The Blue Suite

Disc Two: Luminosity.

Thanks John! It sounds great.

From the website

"Graham’s jazzcontinuum label will release a double CD of his last two suites ‘The Blue Suite’ and Luminosity’, unrecorded when he died in 2011, in February 2014, under the title Luminosity.

The two last suites were recorded at Livingston Studios in London in June 2013. Graham’s long-time saxophonist Geoff Warren agreed to become in effect ‘executive producer’, organizing and conducting the sessions, with a reconvened line-up of Graham’s The Jazz Ensemble, featuring friends old and new: James Allsopp, Roy Babbington, Mark Bassey, Graeme Blevins, Roger Dean, Andy Grappy, John Marshall, Andy Panayi, Ed Speight, Martin Shaw, Art Themen, Trevor Tomkins, Steve Waterman and Jonathan Williams.

As the very last suite, ‘Luminosity’, was inspired by the works of Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann, we approached the Hofmann Trust and obtained permission to use one of the Hofmann paintings, Blue Monolith, 1961, which inspired one of the ‘Luminosity’ pieces, on the cover".

Graham Collier Obituary, The Guardian

A montage of music (13 minutes)

Now I'm waiting for a studio recording of Graham's Paxos Suite, Gaios, Lakka, Loggos.

Photo from www.johngillwrites.com