Colin Towns: Rule Book? What Rule Book?

Since the 1970s, internationally renowned English composer/arranger/pianist/keyboard player Colin Towns has enjoyed an extremely varied musical existence. In that time, he has composed and arranged music in just about every setting imaginable, from heavy rock groups to jazz ensembles both small and large, and from theater to film and ballet. Little wonder, then, that his first small-ensemble outing in years, Stand Well Back (Provocateur Records, 2011), from his latest group, Blue Touch Paper, shows such breadth of musical influences. Starting from the foundations of his habitually dramatic compositional frameworks, Stand Well Back draws from rock, jazz, fusion, electronica, pop and more besides.

It's impossible and self-defeating to hang a name on the music, but suffice it to say, like Towns' musical journey to date, the music on his latest recording is a beautiful rollercoaster of a ride, as exhilarating as it is surprising. In a very English take on the Grateful Dead's refrain "What a long, strange trip it's been," Towns sums up his career to date thus: "It's a funny old road, isn't it, our personal road?"

Towns talks in excited tones about his new group, Blue Touch Paper. After years of writing and arranging for big bands, a return to a smaller, more intimate group format was clearly something that had been on Towns' radar for a while. "Blue Touch Paper" is something I've wanted to do for a long time," he explains. "Twice before, I had experimented with different lineups; the stuff was alright, and we could have gone out and done gigs, and it would have been fine, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I didn't think it was worth it.

"I might have had material for three albums, but I tend to be very selective with my writing; it's important. All the old record labels would have filtered what we've got, and that's kind of gone, so I think you have to be very critical about yourself and not just say, 'Well I've got an album of material, and that's it.' That's not it at all. You've got to keep going until you feel really comfortable and do the best you can at that time."
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