On his return to Britain he founded the first version of an ensemble devoted to his own compositions, Graham Collier Music, which included Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett and John Surman, and in later line-ups Karl Jenkins, Mike Gibbs, Art Themen and many other notable musicians.

[3] Collier was the first recipient of an Arts Council bursary for jazz and was commissioned by festivals, groups and broadcasters across Europe, North America, Australia and the Far East.

As Simon Purcell noted, "Jazz education in the UK owes an enormous amount to Graham Collier (alongside Eddie Harvey and Lionel Grigson) without whom our current positions and extent of provision would have been considerably harder to achieve.

[2] Latterly, Collier lived on a small island in Greece,[5] where he composed, wrote and administered his back catalogue, travelling to present concerts and workshops around the world.

[6] A 1969 edition of the BBC tv series 'Jazz Scene: At The Ronnie Scott Club' was devoted to Collier, and is one of the earliest examples of British colour television.