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Event

Jacob Collier at MIT: Djesse Volume 1 Album Release Celebration

Special Orchestral Concert Celebrating the release of Collier’s “Djesse Vol. 1” and his return to MIT

MIT Sounding: 2018-19 Terry and Rick Stone Concert

Celebrating the December 7th worldwide release of “Djesse Vol.1”—the follow-up recording to the 2017 double Grammy-winning “In My Room”—Jacob Collier is preempting his “Djesse” world tour with a one-of-a-kind performance on December 8 at MIT, an artistic home-away-from-home for him over the past several years.

This unique concert features the MIT JC Orchestra (comprised of MIT and Berklee College musicians), MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble, MIT Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus, Rambax MIT (Senegalese drumming ensemble), Suzie Collier (Jacob’s mom), and other special guest musicians from Boston and Los Angeles.

Jacob Collier’s new album is the first of four volumes being released throughout 2019. The December 8th concert features most of “Djesse Vol. 1” including the first live performance of “With The Love In My Heart,” adapted by Jamshied Sharifi, plus rarely heard orchestral arrangements along with musical surprises.

Jacob’s return to MIT follows the success of his 2016 large-scale concert and subsequent New England Emmy-winning documentary about that event, “Imagination Off The Charts: Jacob Collier Comes to MIT.

Co-produced by MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and MIT Music and Theater Arts, Music Director Frederick Harris, Jr. collaborates with MIT’s master audio technologist and key Collier associate Ben Bloomberg, media experience artist Peter Torpey, and other MIT artists including Laura Grill Jaye (MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble director), William Cutter (MIT Choirs conductor), and Senegalese drumming master Lamine Touré (Rambax MIT director).

Jacob Collier

 is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, arranger, composer and producer, based in London, England. Hailed by many as one of the most prodigious and innovative musicians and thinkers of his generation, Jacob has proven himself worthy of every superlative that has been used to describe him. Spreading joy amongst a multitude of generations with a glorious child-like energy, an old soul, a knowledge of music that is second-to-none, and a tremendous warmth of humanity, Jacob’s style is flabbergastingly unique, combining elements from every genre under the sun — and his world is easy to get lost in.
Jacob, who is mostly self-taught, has been creating music for all of his 23 years. In 2012, he began to share some of these creations with the world via YouTube. These self-produced multi-layered multi-tracked audio-visual creations, borne from his family home in London, began to attract ears from all over the world, racking up tens of millions of views. One day in 2013, Quincy Jones’ ears reached Jacob’s sounds, and he signed Jacob to his management label, to help bring some of his ideas to life.
In 2016, Jacob released his debut album, “In My Room”, which was entirely self-recorded, arranged, performed and produced in his home in London.


Jacob then set out to bring his room to the stage. With the help of MIT PhD student Ben Bloomberg, he designed and built a groundbreaking one-man live performance vehicle which defies the musical laws of nature, featuring a circle of musical instruments, six simultaneous multi-instrumental loopers, a custom-designed vocal harmoniser instrument, a real-time reactive multi-Jacob video screen, and one Jacob in the centre of it all, The first ever performance was held at the Montreux Jazz Festival, 2015, where Jacob opened for Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. Minds were blown; goosebumps were risen. Jacob set out to tour the world.


From winning two Grammy awards for his debut album, to playing 150 shows in 26 countries on his One-Man-Show World Tour; to collaborations with Hans Zimmer, Herbie Hancock, Pharrell, Tori Kelly, Snarky Puppy, Metropole Orkest, Samsung and Apple; to speaking at the TED Conference 2017; to harmonizing hundreds of fans’ #IHarmU melodies to crowdfund his musical adventures; to teaching masterclasses and confounding music theorists around the globe with chords and rhythms that shouldn’t exist; to improvising circlesongs with musicians on the streets of the world; to simply walking through the rain — Jacob’s life is full of different colors. He learns new things every day.

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