Jacob Collier is a British singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of re-harmonisations and close harmony. He is known for his energetic live performances, in which he often conducts the audience to sing harmony or play percussion parts. Collier demonstrates his harmonic expertise in lectures and master classes.
Collier came from a family of musicians and was introduced to music at an early age. With the support of his mother, he learned to play various instruments and became acquainted with musical concepts. His recording career began in the family home, in a room filled with instruments where his mother used to teach violin lessons. He recorded himself singing and playing instruments, mostly covers of jazz standards or pop songs, using a split screen recording technique to display his vocals, and uploaded the recordings to YouTube. The videos often featured use of re-harmonisation, close harmony, dissonance, microtonality and polyrhythms.
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 back room of his family home in Finchley, North London.
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 featured the Metropole Orkest, Djesse Vol. 1, was released in December 2018. The second, Djesse Vol. 2, used more acoustic instrumentation and was released in July 2019. The third volume, Djesse Vol. 3, was released in 2020. The fourth and final volume for the album, Djesse Vol. 4, was released in March 2024.
In 2017, Collier was awarded Grammy Awards for his arrangements of the “Flintstones” theme and Stevie Wonder’s “You and I” on his first album. 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 Djesse Vol. 3., making him the first British artist to receive a Grammy Award for each of his first four albums. In 2025, he won his seventh Grammy for “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from Djesse Vol. 4 in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental, or A Cappella category, extending his record to five consecutive albums with at least one Grammy win.
