Ron Collier

by Merlin Williams

Composer/arranger Ron Collier has written for almost every combination of instruments imaginable: solo flute with piano, strings, woodwind groups, brass groups, full orchestra, concert band, big band, studio orchestras — the list goes on. Many other writers have worked with similar groups, but few have had the opportunity to write for Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra.

Ron Collier got his start as a trombone player with the famous Kitsilano Boys Band under the direction of Arthur Delamont. He later studied writing with Arthur’s son, Gordon Delamont.  He toured Canada with Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, and also played with the National Ballet. Ron’s jazz group was featured at Expo ’67. Ron was the first musician in the jazz field in Canada to get a Canada Council grant, which he used to further his studies with composer and theoretician George Russell, and orchestrator Hall Overton.
When the Stratford Festival started producing a summer jazz concert series in the ’50s, one of the featured Canadian groups was Collier’s. Unfortunately, Ron notes, the jazz concerts in the summer at Stratford are no more.

Even though Collier had seen Ellington’s orchestra in concert in Vancouver in the late ’40s, and worked at the Stratford Festival in the ’50s when Duke was giving concerts there, the two didn’t actually meet until 1967. Louis Applebaum put together a project to feature the work of three Canadian composers: Norm Symonds, Gordon Delamont, and Ron Collier. Applebaum approached Duke Ellington asking if Duke would be willing to be exploited on behalf of the Canadian writers.  Duke agreed, and the recording came about. The album, which is still available on Attic Records (ACDM 1425) contains two of Collier’s compositions: Aurora Borealis, and Silent Night, Lonely Night.

A year later, Collier conducted an orchestra with Ellington as guest soloist in Detroit in a performance of Aurora Borealis. Sometime after that, Duke called Ron to see if he’d be available to write the arrangements for an album he was doing with his own band. Ron did two charts for the record, and recalls that trombonist Lawrence Brown, one of his inspirations on that instrument, looked at the part and announced, “I’m not gonna play that! I don’t have the chops!” The solo got reassigned to altoist Johnny Hodges, and the record got made.
Ellington again called on Collier when he was putting together a concert at a Benedictine monastery in Oregon. Ron arranged the music, and conducted the orchestra himself. Later, Collier did the orchestrations for Ellington’s ballet suite The River. Ron recalls his occasional frustra-tion with Duke’s working methods. Ellington would give him single melody lines with chords — Ron would ask what he wanted.  Duke would reply, “You know what to do! Listen to the recording by the Detroit Symphony of River Suite on Chandos CD 9154.” - Duke was right!

In 1972, Ron became the composer in residence at Humber College in Toronto. He later became the arranging teacher, and led many award winning ensembles. Collier’s connections with Duke led to Ellington’s visit to the college in 1973. Quite an auspicious first guest for the music program! After Ellington’s death in ’74, the college named the scholarship award for “Best Arranger” in Duke’s honour.

Collier wrote prolifically for big band while at Humber. Part of this was necessity - material had to be written to fit the smaller ensembles at the beginning of the program. He also wrote as a creative outlet, and produced such works as The Humber Suite, Four Kisses, Gentleman Harry (a tribute to baritone saxist Harry Carney, of the Ellington band), and Mr. C.M. (in honour of Charles Mingus) to name but a few.

One of his most stunning arrangements from this period, Scrapple >From The Apple, was recorded by Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, on the CD Brassy & Sassy (Concord CCD-4508).Ron’s students fromHumber College include many of thebusiest and most creative musicians on the jazz and com- mercial music scene in Canada today.Since retiring from Humber College, Ron has kept busy with writing projects. In 1997 he completed an enormous undertaking: a version of Oscar Peterson's Canadiana Suite for jazz orchestra. The eight movement work, an hour long, is breathtaking. It was premiered in Vancouver in ’97, and performed again at the Toronto and Ottawa jazz festivals in ’98. Sadly, it has not been recorded. Ron Collier’s Jazz Orchestra was featured in an Ellington Centennial concert in 1999 with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. The two groups performed music from Duke’s Sacred Concerts. In 2000, Ron’s band opened the DuMaurier Downtown Jazz Festival in Toronto to a standing room only crowd.

It was only natural then, that the Toronto Duke Ellington Society would present Collier’s big band in their annual Duke Ellington birthday concert at Walter Hall this year.  Their choice of Ron has already won a ringing endorsement. At time of writing (mid March) the April 28 concert is sold out.

Merlin Williams is Wholenote’s Bandstand columnist, and baritone saxist in Ron Collier’s Jazz Orchestra.