Argument for Jacob Collier being one of the best musicians alive today

Submitted by Drfauci594 t3_1274ti8 in Music

Collier is the first British artist to receive a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums!!

Collier designed and created the Harmonizer Keyboard

Multi instrumentalist- Vocals, keyboard, piano, double bass, bass guitar, drums, percussion, guitar, mandolin, ukulele, harpejji, melodica, conductor

First person to have audiences in his live performances sing choral lines to popular rock songs which he conducts from the stage.

First to sing a Bach double concerto for voice, with Chris Thile's mandolin and part of the NY Philharmonic two nights ago.

Dude isn't even 30 yet

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source wikipedia

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DeC3x0 t1_jedy0sl wrote

Talented, yes and very knowledgeable musically.

Now let’s see him make timeless music that isn’t just a showcase of multi instrumentalism. Even with Grammy wins, nothing about his music resonates.. it’s trying to be overly complex and lacks substance because of it.

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buddychrist12 t1_jee9bbe wrote

I agree completely. Everything I hear from him is innovative and extremely impressive, but I never feel like I need/want to hear it ever again.

The exception for me is his collaboration with snarky puppy, that slaps.

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NegativeAd1432 t1_jeeh2ck wrote

Agreed. He is certainly a skilled and knowledgeable musician, and has done quite well for himself. But I don’t think I’ve ever listened to anything of his more than once. My impression of his music tends to be sterile mostly-covers with kitschy arrangements that are heady and complex for the sake of it.

He played a role in designing his harmonizer, but didn’t build it himself. Nor did he invent the concept, he has said he was inspired by Imogen Heap. It is a cool instrument though, and probably the most advanced one I know of.

Multi instrumentalists are somewhat rare, but there are many of us in the world. Much like language, the more instruments you learn, the easier it is to learn more.

Definitely not the first person to get an audience to sing in harmony though, nor to sing Bach violin concertos.

Objectively, he’s achieved great success, and has many years left to achieve greater heights. But he’s not even on my shortlist of living musicians.

I think his strength lies in teaching and explaining musical concepts. A music communicator, if you will, more so than musician.

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T3634ghkb t1_jeh45vj wrote

Who else has got an audience to sing a three stave moving harmony in the middle of a show and then had that same audience sing the lead part over it and record it?

It said first to sing a Bach double concerto with a mandolin as the other, who else did it?

His harmonizer is the only one in the world so he co invented something

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Backabeyond77 t1_jeclgpg wrote

I’m no expert, but it’s impossible to say anyone is the absolute best. IMO. I will say that what he does seem to do is make classical music accessible, interesting and popular to an audience that may otherwise ignore it. That’s based on what little I know of him. That’s more of a contribution to music than his actual skills.

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