This is a look at the British composer and musician Colin Towns, and how his Mask Orchestra took the jazz world by the scruff of the neck.

Today Colin Towns is one of the most respected and admired composers of TV and Film music. He's also a fine jazz pianist with a jazz orchestra that can knock the spots off any other band around.

London Born

Colin Towns was born in the East End of London in 1949, learning to play the piano as a child. By the age of 13 he was playing professionally. During the 1960s he played in a variety of dance bands and jazz groups. In 1976, he was hired by the ex-Deep Purple singer, Ian Gillan, to replace Mike Moran (or Mickey Lee Soule if you believe what Wikipedia tells you) as the keyboard player in the Ian Gillan Band, writing several hit songs for the band, including "Fighting Man".

Film, TV, and Theatre Music

During his time with Ian Gillan, Towns also began to write music that was outside the heavy-metal strictures of Gillan's work, the result of which was an invitation to submit a demo soundtrack tape to the producers of Mia Farrow's latest film Full Circle. The music was used and credited by many as the best thing in the film.

Colin began to build on the praise he'd received for Full Circle, and soon began to receive commissions to write more music for TV and film, plus a huge number of jingles for TV commercials, including such memorable melodies as those for Branston Pickle, Cadbury's Milk Tray, and Nescafe Gold Blend, plus around another 500 to date.

His film and TV credits include the theme and incidental music for Dalziel & Pacoe, Doc Martin, Not Only But Always, Goodbye Mr Chips, and The Puppet Masters.

Colin's theatre work includes music for an RSC production of Henry V, and the orchestrations for Ben Elton's musical about the life of Rod Stewart, Tonight's The Night.

The Mask Orchestra

Like Duke Ellington before him, Colin Towns has used his commercial success to keep an explosive 19-piece jazz orchestra on the road and in the recording studios.

Actually the recording studios, and Provocateur Records, are owned by Colin Towns, which means he's able to produce whatever he likes -- and what he likes is hard, driving big band jazz that has a cutting edge as sharp as a razor.

To hear tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore -- on the CD Colin Towns Mask Orchestra: Another Think Coming -- chew his way into "Trash Talk", pulling drummer Ian Thomas, and the rest of the orchestra along by their tongues and ears, is to listen to jazz of the highest calibre, jazz that people can live off for a lifetime, making them want to listen to it again and again, making them want to shout words of encouragement at the CD player.

The work of Colin Towns is music of joy and sorrow, of heat, and of a deep blue coolness that is quite troubling in its intensity. It makes people dance, it makes people listen, it makes people realise they're listening to jazz.

To find out more, visit Colin Towns website.

Sources:

The Colin Towns Official Website

The Colin Towns Unofficial Website

BBC Radio 4 Interview, 2005

Information from the Provocateur CD Colin Towns Mask Orchestra - Another Think Coming

Plus correspondence between Colin Towns and Steve Newman