‘On any short list of the most polemical writers in jazz today, [Graham Collier] is fighting for the top spot.’
Ted Gioia, jazz.com

‘Your discussion of what I like to think of as the jazz identity crisis (i.e., what is jazz and who are we?) is forthright and raises many fascinating issues.’
George E. Lewis, Columbia University

jazzcontinuum is a three-part interconnected site about jazz and related matters, from veteran British jazz composer Graham Collier.
The site has been restructured from the old jazzcontinuum site, and much of the material originally published there will appear here in due course.

jazzcontinuum is also the name of a record label dedicated to keeping Graham Collier’s catalogue permanently available. More information at grahamcolliermusic.com

jazz continuum, the name of this site, reflects his view that there is a continuum between the music of the past and what is happening in the best of today’s jazz.
‘jazz happens in real time, once’, the sub-heading, is Graham Collier’s mantra, which he believes should be at the heart of all that is called jazz.

©Karlijne Pietersma

The main entry point to this site is an ongoing Comments column which will develop Graham’s thoughts on the current state of jazz and jazz composition as well as drawing attention to ideas and events both inside and outside the genre.

Spinning off from this will be Writings, the development of these ideas in his new or previously written essays and articles, and Choices, entries about anything and everything that should be better known, including trumpeter Harry Beckett, shown below with Graham in rehearsal.



Sample posts on jazzcontinuum
In Comments
Shooting fish in a barrel - the good professor writes again
David Markson - a brief appreciation of a great novelist
Brussels Pouts - a non-Groucho approach to club membership.

In Writings
Keeping the Peace?
Are Chord Scales the Answer?
Saeta’s influence
Obama on Jazz
Free Potatoes Today!

In Choices, recommended musicians, writers and places:
Conrad Aiken, Paul Grabowsky, Thomas Ades, Allan Pettersson, T.J.Clark, the Galapagos Islands and more.

Graham Collier’s previous jazzcontinuum site has been split into two new sites, grahamcolliermusic.com which deals with his life and career as well as current news, and thejazzcomposer.com a site concentrating on his new book, the jazz composer, moving music off the paper, a philosophical study of jazz composing, and of jazz itself. It asks serious questions about how a music which is meant to be creative, so rarely is. (George Lewis’s quote above is from his comments on the book.)

Graham Collier’s music can be heard in this 13 minute montage. The audio file will open in a new window so you can listen while you look through the site.

Please click on the link below to contact me with any comments on my music or anything I have written.