8 Nov 2025
The Underground
Smoke-Blackened Walls & Curlews
Matthew Bourne, Ben Cottrell & Keeley Forsyth
A portrait of the West Riding through poetry, music, and improvisation.
Commissioned for the 1970 Bradford Arts Festival, Smoke-Blackened Walls & Curlews is a little-known work by British jazz composer/bassist Graham Collier (1937-2011). The composition was a portrait of the West Riding (one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire), which combines music with texts by local authors including Edward Carpenter, J.B. Priestley, and Ted Hughes to create a cultural narrative of the region in the early-mid 20th century.
A Bradford 2025 Artist-Led Award project.
Supported through the Artist-Led Awards programme, improvising pianist, composer, and longtime Keighley resident Matthew Bourne collaborated with regular duo partner Keeley Forsyth, composer/arranger/producer Ben Cottrell, and an ensemble of West Riding-based musicians to revisit Smoke-Blackened Walls. They extended the original material and presented a newly composed set of pieces as a contemporary companion suite.
Across the two works, historical and current narratives were brought together to create a continuing portrait of the region, half a century since Collier’s original composition; coincidentally also approx. 50 years since the West Riding label ceased to be used following local government reforms in 1974.
The project also celebrated Collier’s work and contributions to British jazz and improvised music ahead of what would have been his 90th birthday in 2027. The first UK jazz musician to study at Berklee School of Music in Boston (USA) and the first to receive an Arts Council grant for jazz in 1968. He was also a gay man living and working in often very hostile environments, both professionally and within wider society.
The Team
Anna Chandler-King, James Main-Waring: Saxophones
Graham South: Trumpet/Flugelhorn
Matthew Bourne: Keyboard
Iris Casling: Bass
Beth Veasey: Drums
Keeley Forsyth: Narrator
Compositions by Graham Collier and Matthew Bourne/Ben Cottrell/Keeley Forsyth
Produced by Ben Cottrell
Artist-Led Project Awards
This project is supported by the Bradford 2025 Artist-led Project Awards programme.
Find out more about this programme and the projects we’ve supported below.
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