James Graham Collier was an English jazz bassist and composer born on February 21, 1937, in Tynemouth. After serving as a musician in the British Army, he became the first British graduate of the Berklee School of Music in 1963. He founded Graham Collier Music, an ensemble that included Kenny Wheeler and John Surman. His debut studio recording was Deep Dark Blue Centre (1967), followed by Down Another Road (1969) and Songs for My Father (1970). During the 1970s, he released the albums Mosaics (1971), Portraits (1973), and Midnight Blue (1975). In 1987, Collier launched the jazz degree course at the Royal Academy of Music and received an Order of the British Empire. He relocated to Greece, where he released Directing 14 Jackson Pollocks in 2009. Collier died from heart failure in Crete on September 9, 2011. Posthumous releases included the compilation Relook (2012) and the suites Luminosity - The Last Suites (2014).
