LONDON – Six-time Grammy Award winner Jacob Collier, a fresh voice in contemporary jazz, took an unexpected approach to the final installment of the four-part album series, “Djesse Vol. 4.”
Each volume features collaborations with artists across the globe. But this time, the 30-year-old also harnessed voices of the audience at his shows to create harmonies for the album. Collier often acts as a conductor at his concerts, directing different sections of the crowd to sing segments of his songs, placing microphones around the venue to record their contributions.
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One track on “Djesse Vol. 4” is titled “100,000 Voices," and it quite literally features that many singers.
“There's like over 100,000 people on the album,” he says. “Over 100 of those are established artists or members of groups like orchestras and choirs and things that I really love and respect, from every single continent of the world. But yeah, most of 100,000 voices are the audience members from tour.”
His inventive approach to composition has scored him three Grammy nominations for the 2025 award show, including album of the year, global music performance and best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella.
He's also the first British artist to win a Grammy for each of his first four albums. Not bad for an artist that began his career posting on YouTube, later to become mentored by the late-great producer Quincy Jones and release a number of critically acclaimed records.
Still, Collier can't believe he's once again up for album of the year, the show's top prize. (“Djesse Vol. 3” was nominated in 2021 but lost to Taylor Swift's “folklore.”) In 2025, the other nominees include Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish.
“It's thrilling and wild,” he says of the honor.
“The album is in some ways like a celebration of the human voice,” he says of “Djesse Vol. 4.” “I’m almost more proud of what that means philosophically than I am for, like, these specific songs on the record be recognized (for awards). But it’s a really thrilling predicament.”
Collier believes that everyone can sing and considers himself to be “a leader of a choir,” in his audience improvisations and onstage collaborators. “I really try to make space for all these different kinds of people to just feel welcome," he says. "And if they can feel welcome, then they’re a part of the music.”
“Djesse Vol. 4” contains collaborations with artists across genres, including Brandi Carlile, Camilo, aespa, Shawn Mendes, Stormzy, John Legend, Tori Kelly and Coldplay's Chris Martin.
But now that Collier has completed the “Djesse” series, what's next?
“I don’t have a clear idea of exactly what’s coming next, which I love, actually. Sometimes in life you need those moments of question marks," he says.
"I’ve got like about a billion ideas, but I haven’t committed to any yet because I think I need a moment just to sort of recalibrate and see.”
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The 67th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.
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AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report from New York.