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The genius of Jacob Collier !


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This guy's something like 23 years old. His upbringing I think was by orchestral playing university parents. Trying to think of a description, I thought of Mozart meets Miles. Plus some amazing vocal abilities. He said something in an interview about singing Bach chorales with his sisters back home in London. I think he's going to be a living legend one day. Or not.

 

His big finish begins around 23 minutes.

 

[video=youtube;3H4siAOofuE]

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This music has me stunned. Jacob at MIT with a orchestra and choir performing his song "Hideaway". The voice over inserted explanation tells how 5 and 4 are superimposed on each other.

 

This probably is of no interest to most. But if it reaches even one person...I feel like I'm witnessing genius.

 

[video=youtube;LdtK_oiyJAo]

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Reasonable people can disagree. I don't know what you listened to and for how long. The MIT documentary is about 30 minutes or so. There's some commentary in it that explains some of the musical higher math going on in some of his music - he explains the drummer is playing at one point 5 beats to the bar on the cymbals with his bass pedal playing 4 (IIRC).

 

For me, if he only did one or two of his "things" he'd be merely brilliant. But the variety and range is astounding to me. He arranges, orchestrates, plays the piano, sings - and can sing micro-tones (those pitches between the piano keys) , plays bass, drum set. And all at a high level.

 

I think he's in the rare company of people like Picasso and Mozart. They grew up immersed in a particular environment and by age 20 were brilliant in their art.

 

Remember he does the effing arrangements in addition to playing amazingly.

 

The first video below "On Broadway" - is in an odd meter. Someone commented that it's in 9/4.

Jacob Collier videos:

 

On Broadway (piano and vocal) NAMM 2016

 

 

Jacob - Georgia On My Mind (vocal acapella with melodica soloing)

 

 

I Wish - Collier with the WDR Big Band (rehearsal)

 

 

In The Real Early Morning - with the Metropole Orkfest

 

 

Danny Boy

 

 

Music Theory Interview

 

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Genius is in the eye of the beholder. Me, I can't relate to Jacob Collier's music - to me, it sounds like he doesn't know the tune but is still inspired to perform it anyway. There's nothing wrong with that. But I can't tap my foot to it, I can't dance to it, I can't hum it, and I certainly couldn't learn to play what he plays even if I wanted to. He might be interesting to some, creative to some, but genius? No, I don't think so, at least not yet.

 

If you want to introduce people, or specifically music students, to unconventional time signatures and polyrhythms, you don't want to throw them into the deep end of the pool and try to decipher something that goes back and forth from sounding familiar and sounding random (though I'm sure he knows why he plays every note), you play them an African song with the percussion slipping in five beats to the guitarist's four, or a Macedonian street band whose time signatures look like a set of socket wrenches, an old time fiddle tune that, if you wrote it out, would look like a jumble of time signatures but when you listen, it becomes apparent that this is the way the musician hears the tune, or even a Carter Family song.

 

Yeah, Dawg music, too.

 

 

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You guys are right. He's an acquired taste. For those who've acquired it he'll be huge I think. But there are so many currents in the musical streams these days for people to choose from . Hey, I'll bet Jacob's will inspire some to check into African music as well as many other musics. That's what he's done. Explore.

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