Born: 2 / 8 / 1994
Location: United Kingdom
Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony. He is also known for his energetic live performances, in which he often conducts the audience to sing harmony or percussion parts. Collier demonstrates his harmonic expertise in lectures and master classes, particularly with his unique Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-Meta-Lydian scale and detailed analyses of songs like Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” and his own music.In 2013, his split-screen video covers of popular songs, such as Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing", began to go viral on YouTube. In 2014, Collier signed with Quincy Jones's management company and began working on his one-man, audio-visual live performance vehicle, designed and built at the MIT Media Lab by Ben Bloomberg.In 2016, Collier released his debut album, In My Room, which he recorded, arranged, performed and produced himself in the small back room of his family home in Finchley, North London. In 2017, Collier was awarded Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "Flintstones" and "You and I".In 2018, Collier began working on Djesse, a four-volume, 50-song album featuring more than two dozen artists and ensembles. The first volume, which features the Metropole Orkest, Djesse Vol. 1, was released in December 2018. The second, Djesse Vol. 2, uses more acoustic instrumentation, and was released in July 2019. In 2020, Collier won Grammy Awards for his arrangements of "All Night Long (All Night)" from Djesse Vol. 1 and "Moon River" from Djesse Vol. 2. In 2021, he won a Grammy Award for "He Won't Hold You" from the third volume, Djesse Vol. 3.
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Jacob Collier, once the ultimate 'one-man band', talks to Maxim Boon about how the credits for four-part project 'Djesse' are a list of "30 or so" of his favourite musicians from around the world.
"Just how a performer can repeat the lyrics 'singing in the dead of night' for minutes on end and keep us wailing, sweating and enthralled is a true testament to Collier's skill and the humanity he brings to performance."
"I've never read a single book about music theory or anything like that. So I started to coin my own terms for things and come up with my own way of talking about music"
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