GRAHAM COLLIER — Mosaics (review)

GRAHAM COLLIER — Mosaics album cover Live album · 1971 · Progressive Big Band Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Sean Trane
Definitely a step up from his previous works’ Collier’s Mosaics piece is an impressive mix of written series of themes mixed with a bunch of solo instrumental improvisations. Aside Graham, you’ll find the usual suspects like Beckett, Castle, Wakeman (not Rick) and Webb (not Stan) and finally newcomer (to Collier‘s entourage) Sydor on sax. Recorded live at the tail end of 1970, the album sports an uncharacteristic electronics-as-mosaics Roger Dean artwork.

A slow crescendoing piano opens the album and introduces the Mosaics theme, where you’ll find the typical Collier composing characteristics, a dramatic-sounding background, which is sometimes reminiscent of Spanish music (and the Spaghetti Western soundtracks ala Morricone) and some much freer and sometimes bordering dissonant lead horn instruments. Then there are the solos-proper themselves, which are generally not quite as easy on the eardrums and tend to dampen the aural enthusiasm on an otherwise often-remarkable project. Indeed in this writer’s opinion, while these rather short solo excursions in dissonant or inhabitual scales are generally fine (and even magnified) when accompanied by some tremendous musical foundations from the rest of the band; they fall rather flat on their face when the solo is indeed playing entirely solo, often close to masturbation. However Castle’s piano works, Webb’s drumming and Collier’s bassing (says moi! ;o)) are irreproachable, most of the (very light) blame would be attributed to the horn players, if it wasn’t the zeitgeist.

Overall another excellent Graham Collier album (despite the small reserves about soloing solo instruments), not far from the Nucleus of Ian Carr, not as JR/F either but close enough to be associated to the nascent movement.

Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Cabaret Eclectic Fusion
MARIUS NESET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Living Ghosts Post-Fusion Contemporary
MICHAEL WOLLNY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Live at Donte's, Vol. 1 Vocal Jazz
MIKE CAMPBELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sunday Afternoon Fusion
FURIO DI CASTRI
Buy this album from MMA partners
São Paulo Creative 4 : Supernova Avant-Garde Jazz
IVO PERELMAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Sunday afternoon
FURIO DI CASTRI
snobb· 6 hours ago
Harmônicos
FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO
js· 21 hours ago
Con Alma
GENE BERTONCINI
js· 1 day ago
Our Walk (Live)
BEN MARKLEY
js· 1 day ago
Solar (feat. Vicente Archer & Otis Brown III)
JERRY LÉONIDE
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed