Ron Collier

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Ronald William Collier (born July 3, 1930 in Coleman , Alberta , † October 22, 2003 in Toronto , Ontario ) was a Canadian jazz trombonist , composer and arranger .

Live and act

Collier began his musical education at the age of thirteen in Vancouver, where he played the trombone in the Kitsilano Boys' Band . From 1951 to 1954 he studied composition in Toronto with Gordon Delamont . He was the first jazz musician ever to receive a Canada Council scholarship that enabled him to continue studying in New York with George Russell and Hall Overton from 1960–61 .

Since the 1950s, Collier has played in various dance bands in Toronto (including Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen ), but also in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , the orchestras of the National Ballets and the Canadian Opera Company as well as radio and television orchestras, and has performed with prominent guests such as Billie Holiday and Charles Mingus . He became a member of the octet of Norman Symonds and founded his own band, from 1954 to 1957 as a quartet, then as a quintet, which he occasionally enlarged to a septet and a big band. With his quintet and the CBC Symphony Orchestra he performed Symonds' Concerto Grosso for jazz quintet and symphony orchestra. Between 1959 and 1965 he made several recordings with his ensemble.

Collier became an important part of the Third Stream in Canada. He composed works such as the Sonata for piano and jazz quintet, which he performed with Norm Amadio , The City for orchestra and narrator (performed in 1960 with Don Francks ) and Hear Me Talkin 'To Ya for octet and narrator (premiered in 1964). Based on a libretto by Gwendolyn MacEwen , he composed the piece Carneval , which he performed in 1969 with his orchestra, Bruno Gerussi as narrator and Fred Stone as flugelhornist. He also composed the incidental music for The Mechanic (1965), the ballet music Aurora Borealis (1966), music for radio and television shows as well as several film scores.

In 1967, Collier recorded as the conductor of a big band and a string orchestra Aurora Borealis , the music for the TV drama Night, Lonely Night and a composition each by Symonds and Gordon Delamont with Duke Ellington as the pianist. The following year he conducted a concert with Ellington with Detroit, and Collier then worked for a long time as an arranger for Ellington. He also arranged for Moe Koffman and Rob McConnell .

In 1972, Collier became Composer-in-Residence at Humber College , Toronto. From 1974 to 1994 he taught composition and arranging here. His students included u. a. Pete Coulman , Scott MacMillan , Jim McGrath , John Roby , Ilmars Sermulis, and Doug Wilde . With the college band he won the Canadian Stage Band Festival in 1975, 1982 and 1986 . With his own big band he performed a. a. at the Ontario Place Jazz Festival 1979 and a concert at the Ontario Science Center in 1983.

In 1997, Collier wrote a version of Oscar Peterson's Canadiana Suite , which was premiered by Fred Stride's Big Band and played by Collier's Big Band in 1998 at the Ottawa and Toronto Jazz Festivals. In 2000 the Ron Collier Band opened the Du Maurier Downtown Jazz Festival in Toronto. In 2003, Collier was named an Officer of the Order of Canada . Since Collier's death, Humber College has awarded a Ron Collier Memorial Scholarship .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Tom Lord The Jazz Discography
personal data
SURNAME Collier, Ron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Collier, Ronald William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian jazz trombonist, composer and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Coleman, Alberta
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 2003
Place of death Toronto