
In a business full of good and bad intentions, Towns has tried harder than most to do the right thing by the musicians he’s worked with as a band leader and as a record label boss. Mistakes might get made perhaps, disasters might happen but the balance sheet leans firmly to the good.
Towns’ label Provocateur has just been revitalised with Lend Me Your Ears, his new album of original compositions with the German radio-backed NDR Big Band, and with Norma Winstone’s new album. Times have been hard for a label that started out with such high hopes but Towns is once again looking forward. With these new releases, now issued in the UK and an autumn UK tour with Norma and the NDR then another with Frank Zappa’s Hot Licks And
Funny Smells, also with the NDR, the future’s brighter now.
We talked at Thames TV studios where Towns was attending a screening of Cold Blood II, a drama for which he’s written the music. As well as providing his main income, film and TV work have provided Colin with the means of subsidising his jazz work, including Provocateur.
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