Jacob Collier has earned acclaim as a vocalist who commands multiple Grammys along with proficiency across numerous instruments, thanks to a polished yet melodic approach that fuses jazz with broad appeal, the soulful essence of 1970s R&B, pop sensibilities, and up-to-date electronic production methods. He rose to online prominence during the early 2010s through densely layered performances that simulated an entire vocal harmony ensemble performed by one individual, often paired with video documentation, an approach he refined further via a 2014 collaboration with the MIT Media Lab. Released in 2016, his first full-length project In My Room climbed to the summit of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart while claiming two Grammy Awards. He has kept evolving his musical palette through a succession of expansive recordings that began with Djesse, Vol. 1 in 2018 and incorporated work with Laura Mvula, Becca Stevens, Lianne La Havas, Tori Kelly, and additional contributors. By the arrival of the guest-filled Djesse, Vol. 4 in 2024, he had accumulated six Grammys recognizing his arranging abilities.
Raised in a North London household steeped in music after his birth in 1994, Collier started posting videos of his polished, multi-tracked performances from his home studio at age seventeen toward the close of 2011. He typically arranged the footage in a grid format that displayed every vocal and instrumental layer, frequently constructing vocal harmonies in up to eight parts supported by keyboards, stringed instruments, and assorted percussion. Among his initial material were original compositions such as “Serendipity” alongside interpretations of works by songwriters including George & Ira Gershwin, Burt Bacharach, and Stevie Wonder.
Following secondary school he entered the Royal Academy of Music as a jazz piano performance student. During this period he attracted the notice of producer Quincy Jones, who placed him under his management company. He also advanced his solo multimedia performance techniques while at the institution through joint efforts with engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. Backed by Jones, he first presented the resulting technology at the 2015 Montreux Jazz Festival, where he served as an opener for Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. Growing demand for his arranging expertise soon led to partnerships with other performers, among them a contribution to Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, Vol. 2, issued in early 2016.
“Hideaway” marked his first official single drawn from a self-titled album project and surfaced in April 2016. Later that year the Membran label issued his debut LP In My Room, which registered on charts in Switzerland and the Netherlands while attaining the number-three position on Billboard’s Jazz Albums ranking. Two Grammy Awards for arranging followed in 2017, one for his treatment of Stevie Wonder’s “You and I” in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella category and another for his rendition of the Flintstones theme song in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals category.
When he reentered the studio for a second album in 2018, more than two years of international touring lay behind him. Presented as the opening installment of a four-part series, Djesse, Vol. 1 reached stores via Decca in December 2018. It enlisted the Metropole Orkest under Jules Buckley together with appearances by Laura Mvula, Moroccan singer Hamid El Kasri, the vocal ensembles Take 6 and Voces8, and Jacob’s mother Suzie Collier. Djesse, Vol. 2 emerged the following year and placed Collier in more intimate acoustic environments alongside Lianne La Havas, Oumou Sangaré, Sam Amidon, Becca Stevens, and further collaborators. Both volumes earned Grammy Awards, specifically Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for “All Night Long” from Vol. 1 and Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for “Moon River” from Vol. 2. In the next year he released the EP sets Jacobean Essentials and Jacobean Chill in addition to Djesse, Vol. 3, which featured Tori Kelly, T-Pain, Ty Dolla $ign, and others. The album received an Album of the Year Grammy nomination, while its track “He Won’t Hold You,” featuring Rapsody, captured the award for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals. During the wait for the concluding Djesse installment, Collier supplied an unconventional and Grammy-nominated interpretation of “The Christmas Song,” contributed co-writing and backing vocals to SZA’s Top Ten single “Good Days,” and issued the live collection Piano Ballads in September 2022. Captured at various international venues earlier that year, the set included appearances by vocalist Alita Moses and multi-instrumentalist Stian Carstensen. In 2023 he earned one of the producer nominations for Album of the Year at the Grammys for his involvement with Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres from 2021. Recognition persisted into 2024 when he shared the Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals Grammy for “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” by Säje featuring Collier, credited jointly with Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick, and Amanda Taylor. Djesse, Vol. 4 followed weeks later at the end of February 2024, its roster boasting Brandi Carlile, John Legend, John Mayer, and Coldplay’s Chris Martin; the album reached number three on the Heatseekers chart. An expanded edition containing bonus material such as “Magic” with Emily King appeared in October. By year’s end the release had secured three Grammy nominations, among them Album of the Year.
