Imagination Off the Charts: Jacob Collier comes to MIT

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๐Ÿ‘๏ธŽ︎ 2 ๐Ÿ‘ค๏ธŽ︎ u/[deleted] ๐Ÿ“…๏ธŽ︎ Apr 05 2018 ๐Ÿ—ซ︎ replies

Timestamp: 1:06 to 1:19

Full notation would be great if possible - they're extremely short (about 2 bars each)

๐Ÿ‘๏ธŽ︎ 1 ๐Ÿ‘ค๏ธŽ︎ u/willpantaleo ๐Ÿ“…๏ธŽ︎ Apr 01 2018 ๐Ÿ—ซ︎ replies
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We are making music with one of the most talented people I've ever met named Jacob Collier. So you go, (SINGING) you don't wanna be my savior. And you don't want to-- especially with the-- you don't wanna be my savior. In the music world, Jacob's huge, you know? And so in some ways, for him to get to work with all these musicians, it's the best thing. We were able to get him to come to MIT and kind of do a week long residency. MIT's visiting artist program is trying to bring great artists in substantive contact with our students. It's all about music education experiences. I wanted them to feel the sparks of Jacob's creativity firsthand, and I wanted them to go beyond that, to get inside his music and to be able to make it their own. For this kind of thing, it's-- all you really need is-- is like a-- you know what I mean? More than like-- you know, you could even find like a-- I mean, I'd do your own thing but you could find a riffy thing, that's just kind of like-- you know what I mean? And just like-- because I guess the guitar is like basically a drummer here as opposed to being a harmony instrument. He creates a really great atmosphere for working with people and bringing the best out of them. That sounds amazing. It's a creative environment, and that really feeds me. Their minds are obviously so sharp, you know? And it's not even necessarily musically sharp in the foreground, but these guys think about stuff. There's this gig on Saturday that if don't have tickets to, I believe there's a waiting list, but you should come. It's going to be so crazy-- 200 musicians on the stage. I'm performing with Jacob Collier, which is amazing. When I listen to his music, it like sends chills up my spine, especially "Hideaway." Like, that's my favorite song. A sense of peace a sense of calm, and something making sense. When I started listening to the music, I realized this was a lot more complicated than most arranging projects. As a music nerd, it's a beautiful looking score to me because there's all these things that didn't appear like they should be there from the beginning and they start to show up. His music is in many ways like classical music, which is that so much of it is specified. Take me anywhere you want to go. You know that my love is strong. It's pretty moving for some-- well, "Hideaway" especially. There are certain points in the music where it's pretty overwhelming. [MUSIC - JACOB COLLIER, "HIDEAWAY"] (SINGING) Softly, like the calm that follows storms So he states the melody. He sings the melody. It's all very tonal and pretty like a pop song. And then we get to the bridge and suddenly he throws us for a loop. (SINGING) In my hideaway. Even when I close my eyes, darling I will always stay wide awake in my hideaway. Touch me like I've never loved before in the place the I adore in my hideaway. The drummer has one of the hardest things of all. He's got to play the fives on the symbol but still maintain the slow four with his foot. (SINIGING) I know whichever way the wind may blow, there will be a place for me to go in my hideaway. Whether you be lost or found, darling, I will always stay wide awake in my hideaway, my hideaway. Down, falling down. Down, falling down. Down, falling down. Down, falling down. In the second verse, he adds this layer of fives. So, 3, 4, 5. [TICKING] And it's made more complex by the fact that the fives are grouped in fours and threes and sixes. falling down, falling down, falling down to the ground It's-- you know, you don't hear the math of it when you're listening to the song. You just suddenly become unmoored in this kind of dreamlike state. And yet you still hear the slow pulse from the original part of the song. He's kind of playing with this notion of you, the listener, thinking you know where you are. And he'll throw something at you that unmoors it but without completely divorcing you from the structure that you knew before. [OOING] It's just-- it's a revelation. It's amazing. And all of this is happening in what at the beginning seemed to be a simple four chord pop song. [SCATTING] This is kind of what our lives are like is that we try to reduce them so that we can get through the day. But there's stuff going on that if we just pay attention to it is beautiful, inspiring, frightening. And he's kind of encapsulating all of this in a five or six minute song that appears to be a pop ballad at the beginning. [SCATTING] Let me feel the sky and feel the moon. Let me sing and always tune to my hideaway. It was just like everything I had ever wanted to hear in music because it's so intricate in detail, but it's purposeful, and like, he has a purpose for everything he does, every note he hits, every weird beat that he plays. Find a home in everything in my hideaway. Maybe you can come to stay. And I will meet you here someday far away in my hideaway. What my mom did is recognize that I had some kind of weird brain that was very thirsty and very inventive and quite emotionally mature and presented lots of different things to me. Like, this is Bach. This is Stravinsky. This is Bartok. This is Britain. This is Earth, Wind, and Fire. This is Bobby McFerrin. This is Sting. Those are like a lot of my heroes growing up. And I wasn't told to do anything with them. I was just told to enjoy them. She used to do things like turn on the vacuum cleaner or, as we say in the UK, the Hoover and plug it in and it would go [VACUUM SOUND] and she would say, Jacob, what note does that feel like? This is when I'm two, two years old. I was like, G? yeah, that's a G. Really, the biggest gift I was given as a child was a space and the affirmation to create in it. And I was never, ever taught to practice ever. I was never taught to practice. And people don't believe that. No, no way. where's the discipline? Sort of thing, and it's funny because it's true, but people have an idea of how to learn and how to teach that I think is horrifically out of date. Do my dreaming and my scheming. Lie awake and pray. Do my crying and my sighing. Laugh at yesterday. Now it's dark and I'm alone. But I won't be afraid in my room, in my room, in my room, in my room. I like the idea of at the beginning of "Hajanga," the first thing you hear is the strings come in. It's like the announcing of a new song. Yeah. So I quite like the change of texture for that. That's cool. Do you want to do those edits? You can plug in the speakers and do those edits. I'd love that, yeah. Can we plug in a microphone? Yeah. Ah, sweet. [SINGING] I saw one of his videos on YouTube and I thought, oh my gosh, this guy's amazing. He's got this great sense of aesthetics and editing skills and mixing and all these things. And I like to build music tech stuff. And so I sent him a Facebook message saying-- I'm at MIT and I make stuff. Have you any ideas of stuff you'd like to make? And I said, oh, yes I have. I've always dreamed of singing harmony on the spot, be able to essentially improvise a choir. Singing in the life time. Take these broken wings and learn to fly, oh, oh. A harmonizer takes whatever you're singing. And there's a keyboard and you can play different notes. And the notes that you play are transformed so that what you sing is spread across lots and lots of notes-- basically multiplies his voice up in stacks. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. Oh, all your life you were only-- you were only waiting for this moment to-- moment to be free. Blackbird, fly. Blackbird, fly. Because this is like woodwind and then sax. Those sounds go together, don't they? Yeah. I'm going to be creating this kind of improvised harmonic, more spontaneous technological musical compound piece where I can send the musicians information during the performance via maybe iPad screens or something like this where I say, you play these notes now. And they play it. It swells up and swells down. And then I can fill in the gaps. And it's like a big conversation. And this is one of the main pieces of work that will be done between now and December. I think on stage, you'll need one laptop. That will be the MIDI input. OK. And that will have a keyboard. We each open up a web page on our phone, and there's a staff. So he's picking all these different notes, chords, rhythms, everything for every different instrument. And we're playing them as they come up on our screen. It's allowing Jacob to literally play the band in real time. I'm a scientist. I'm an engineer too, so I like to tinker. I like to explore things. And one of my best laboratories is with music. So I think if anything Jacob, has made us into bolder, more risk taking experimentalists. I learned perhaps more about how it's best not to learn and not to teach than how to learn and how to teach. Don't give people all the answers to things. If you give people all the answers, then they are the subject to your criteria. But if you give them all the questions and the clues, then they find their own answers. And actually, the process of finding an answer is almost all of learning. So I think teachers have a responsibility to trust their students to find not only answers, but their own answers that might be different from the teacher's answers, especially when it comes to something like jazz which is so vague and so expressive and personal. (SINGING) If I let your mind create me, the work will never end. I don't wanna be a preacher. I just wanna be a man. I won't let you exaltate me. Just to keep me as I am. I don't wanna be a--- We have to take the cue from him. I had an idea for like-- for the section that it goes [VOCALIZING].. I could be there like with the [INAUDIBLE] I'm getting stuff. [VOCALIZING] Just to give them the rhythm there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [INAUDIBLE] OK. At what stage in the process do you write the lyrics to the song? It depends. Sometimes they're the first thing that I write. I write a lot. I write-- I have a thought book that's filled with words, really dense imagery, like really interesting, dense imagery. And when I come to write lyrics. I try and write as little of it as I can because the music is already complex and I need to allow people to find their meanings in the words. Like the song "Hajanga" it's just a number of seven syllable lines. Everybody near and far, come together as you are. And to the ocean, to the sky, sing that cosmic lullaby. That could mean lots of different things. That could mean life and death. It could mean a simple song that your mother sings to you before you go to sleep. It could mean the actually universe-- like, lots of different things. I'd rather write words that invite people to understand them rather than project my understanding onto other people. Everybody near and far come together as you are. And to the ocean, to the sky, sing that cosmic lullaby. Sing that lullaby. Sing the hajanga. Sing your pleasure, sing your pain like I'll never sing again. Let it echo loud and clear across the ancient stratosphere. And when the good days pass you by, there's a spark of joy that can be found. And when those dark clouds bring you down lift your hands up from the sky singing [SCATTING] As the words go round and round and round and round, let the tears roll down and down. [SCATTING] Sing the way you wish to be across the ancient stratosphere. Even when those dark clouds bring you down, there's a spark of joy that can be found. Oh, even when things break and fall apart. Lift your voices from your heart singing-- [SCATTING] So every morning and every night, from that darkness to the light, like a beacon shining bright, sing the hajanga. You'll be all right. From the winter comes the spring. It don't matter what life may bring. Said you can do most anything. So give your hajanga a song to sing. So tell your mama and tell your pa. Sing it near and sing it far. Be exactly the way you are. See the hajanga. It's your guiding star. So every woman, every man, in every nation, in every land, I said please you've got to understand. Now sing the hajanga and take my hand. Then one day, your life is through. Nothing more that you can do. So give away the things you know, things you know. And tell your friends you love them so. Tell them hajanga. Probably busy this whole week, but if you ever find like an hour and you want to go grab a pint anywhere-- yeah, yeah, fantastic. Are you're going-- you coming on Saturday? I am. Just find me after the-- find me after the show. I'll be hanging out. Cool, all right. Fantastic. All right. So-- Yeah, yeah, so nice to meet you too. Yeah, see you soon. Thank you. Cheers, see you later. I really feel like MIT is a sort of second home in some ways. I've always felt some kind of kinship with this kind of idea of celebrating the introvert. At MIT, it's a sort of sublime understanding of the people who think inwards first. And I would count myself in amongst that group of people. So I'd like to celebrate that idea, I think, and being at MIT consistently reminds me how wonderful it is when people think beyond this level and up and down into the other realms of things. So I'd like to just sort of say thank you to MIT as a concept. [INAUDIBLE] If the groove's going [BEAT BOXING],, and the bass is going [BEAT BOXING WITH BASS NOTES],, that's cool, right? It's like, it's more cool than [BASIC BASS LINE].. Yeah, [COMPLEX BEAT BOXING],, because they have a gravity that goes towards the same place, but they don't have a unison line. Let's try a different groove. This is a groove that's hard to nail, but it's the groove on the record. And it's like a lilt groove. So it's less of a shuffle. And it's like halfway between a shuffle and a normal groove. So this is straight, and then this is triplet. It's like halfway between like this. It's less about putting the high hat later. It's more about bringing the snare earlier. So it's like-- [BEAT BOXING] Actually, if I play and then you guys can join in, maybe that's a good way to get the feel. So it's like-- I dig it. Can I have a go at the drum kit? [INAUDIBLE] [PLAYING DRUMS] He very carefully and deliberately swings it in certain ways and modulates the time and pulls and pushes in a way that just gets this like really visceral groove where you just like get into it so much. [SINGING] That little bit of extra effort to, you know, change it makes such a difference. And that's such a Jacob kind of construct. It's like that extra bit of intention that just-- you know, even just a tiny little breath or a tiny little extra note or something that doesn't quite, you know, fit in what the rules say they're supposed to do. So at the end, were you guys-- had you guys split into two sections, or were you singing different things? Some of them saying, I don't want to be [INAUDIBLE].. And the other one was going-- You don't want to be-- Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We could do girls versus boys. It could be so like, I don't want to be, and then, you don't want to be my-- you know what I mean? Put your hand in the air if you'd be willing to sing along in this next song with me. And by that, I mean everybody raise your hand. This is a song called "Savior." It's the last tune of the night. Thank you so, so much for coming. This must be what Quincy Jones felt when he first encountered Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson-- that here's someone who has really, really deep musical resources. He's marshalling this at a young age, and he has phenomenal performance skills, arranging skills, composition skills. It's just incredible that all this exists in a single person. Don't wanna be a-- [SCATTING] I don't need you saving me. I don't need a savior. [SCATTING] She wants to touch me deep down below and up above me. And I know that she's never going to love me. I, I, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know she's always gonna try to please me. But she can never find the strength to leave me. You'll never be the one to free me. Ah, ah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be on and I'll be done watching life go round and round. I'm not the person you've been searching for. So go and knock on someone else's door. Because I don't want to listen anymore. Oh yeah. You say that I'm lost and you can help me find that I don't want to be a savior no more. I wish you could tell me something to change my mind. But you don't want to be my savior. [SCATTING] The way he performs is enthralling. I can't even begin to imagine his potential. I mean, he's only, what, 22? I just think all of us are so incredibly lucky. I'm gonna start with this side of the room. Are you guys ready? Just a second. Say you don't want to be my savior. You don't want to close that door. I don't want to give a reason. Would you tell me what we're searching for? Sing it. You don't want to be my savior. You don't want to close that door. I don't want to hear a reason. Would you tell me what we're searching for? Everybody You don't want to be my savior. Come on! Say you don't wanna close that door. I don't want to hear a reason. Would you tell me what we're searching for? All right. Say you don't want to be my savior. You don't want to close that door. I don't wanna hear a--- I don't wanna be a preacher, I just wanna be a man, I won't let you exaltate me. Just to keep me as I am. I don't want to be a preacher. I don't want to. [MUSIC PLAYING] He's one of those once in a lifetime kind of people that changes the way you look at things. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's really inspiring. It makes me think that there's real divinity in the world. [CROWD SINGING] Black bird singing in the dead of night. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. Oh, no, in all your life, oh, no, oh, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive, for this moment to a-- birds singing in the dead of night, oh. Ba ba ba ba ba ba. Take these sunken eyes and learn to see, learn to see, learn to see. All your life, oh, oh, you were only waiting for this moment to be free, moment to be free.
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Channel: MIT Video Productions
Views: 1,025,416
Rating: 4.9248395 out of 5
Keywords: Jacob Collier, MIT, Documentary, Imagination, Jazz, berklee college of music, New England Conservatory, University of New Hampshire, Boston Arts Academy, Ben Bloomberg, you and i, flintstones, hideaway, interview, close to you, in my room, live, snarky puppy, i harm u, christmas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Id: LdtK_oiyJAo
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 34min 39sec (2079 seconds)
Published: Fri Sep 08 2017
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