# Oh, how do you know the highest... # Fascinating Rhythm
You've got me on the go # Fascinating Rhythm
I'm all a-quiver... # Once upon a time, a teenager in the suburbs of North London uploaded some videos to YouTube and they became a global sensation. JACOB HARMONISES # One, two, three # Come with me and you'll be # In a world of pure imagination... I'm here in North London,
heading for the world of Jacob Collier.
# Your imagination. # # Worshipped the beloved # With a kiss. # Jacob's extraordinary a cappella
harmonies went viral and caught the attention
of music world legends Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock. I promise you, you've never
seen this before or heard this before. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! # Don't you worry 'bout a thing... # Don't you worry 'bout a thing, # Baby... I thought I was good with harmonies. No, he was all over my stuff
and past that. Hey! Jacob's YouTube uploads turned out
to be the opening act of a musical career
that has been meteoric. # Moon river # Wider than a mile. # Next guest is nominated
for two Grammys, including Album of the Year. # You're all I need... Jacob's multi-instrumental skills
are dazzling. # Underneath the moonlight, oh. # # Cos I've been sleeping
on my dreams, ah # So I imagined
we were playing a game # Something like you could
be an animal # And all I had to do was be tame. # And he collaborates with music
world superstars. He's like nothing I've ever
seen before, worked with before,
listened to before. # Night and day, light and dark...
He's so in demand. # Any day it could be
torn in half. # We all recognised, "Oh, this guy
can make us sound better." # My love is my protection... Jacob now tours the world. # I'll be a world of your
projection. # And his music
crosses all boundaries of genre, from pop to jazz to classical. INSTRUMENTAL The reason he doesn't sound
like he has any boundaries when he plays is because
what's going in doesn't have any boundaries. He can't help but explore. # Cos I've been sleeping
on my dreams, ah... Jacob made music history
by being the only British artist ever to win Grammys for each
of his first four albums. Not even The Beatles did that. # I've been sleeping on my dreams. # Jacob doesn't have
a Hollywood mansion. When he's not touring the globe, he lives a very
down-to-earth existence. I think I'm getting warm. He's still producing music out of a small room in the family
home where he lives with his mum. Come on in. So... ..this is the legendary
music room? It's my favourite room
in the world. This is the room... We're in the room where it happens. JACOB VOCALISES # I love the way that I feel
when you put your arms over me... When did you first come
to this room, can you remember? I learned to walk in here, aged one. # Cos every time I think about it # I can't stop thinking about it. # I see this array of guitars.
Along here, yeah. All sorts of guitars. Different stages of my life. This one, this is my first
guitar ever. A nylon string... JACOB STRUMS How old were you there?
..which I adore. I think 14 or so. And my first-ever bass guitar
was this guy, which I think was about the same
time as this guy. So age 14 or so. And it seemed
so big in my hands. To me, I think, whenever I play
any instrument, I'm just trying to be a voice. Whether it's a piano or drums
or guitar or ukulele or whatever, it's all really the same language. Like this typewriter here. So that's nice. And until now, as far as I can see,
all that work I've seen of yours on YouTube, all those
endless things, they were all made in this room?
It's all in here. I did it all on one mic
until I was 20. And I wanted to show you that mic,
actually... Yeah. because it's such a cool beastie. OK, check this out.
Black velvet bag. This is... THEY LAUGH ..my original SM58 Shure microphone. Yeah. Hey, that's an antique. It's an antique. And I don't mean
to brag, but...it smells really good. Go on, have a go. This is the kind of mother ship.
The mother ship? Yeah. It was here where Jacob's
ambitious experiment with harmonisation,
his computer wizardry, and the power of social media
would all converge to change his life forever. # Everybody's got a thing. # It was Jacob's arrangement of a Stevie Wonder classic, Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing, that went viral. # Reachin' out in vain # Just taking the things
not worth having # Don't you worry 'bout a thing... JACOB HARMONISES # Don't you worry 'bout a thing,
baby... I took that song and I went
absolutely nuts on it - like, harmonically - because
I just wanted to reach the limits of this fabric. I knew chords and I knew the piano.
But it wasn't enough. I wanted to go further.
I wanted to go deeper. # Don't you worry 'bout a thing... # Don't you worry 'bout a thing,
baby. # I was doing all this stuff. I didn't understand
what I was doing, but I was doing microtones - notes between notes on the piano - and some of these notes, like this
one, see, that's a quarter tone. You can't play it on a piano. You have to do that by ear because
it doesn't exist on the piano. It goes... JACOB VOCALISES Like this. It goes between
the two notes. The things which always surprise me
about Jacob is his inherent knowledge of how to get in between the cracks of the Western scale, you know? Those quarter turn things he does,
you know, which are way beyond me. And here I actually managed
to find the session. JACOB VOCALISES But when you hear it,
it sounds uniquely like him. That's the great thing,
you can recognise. And that's almost what
all musicians are after. When they start, they're trying
to sound like somebody else, but actually what they want
is their own sound. Whether you like it or you don't
like it doesn't matter. You recognise, "Oh, that's them.
That's their sound. "That's their voice." If you isolate the parts... LOW PITCH: # Standing on the side
when you check it. # ..they sound really strange. HIGH-PITCH: # Cos I'll be standing
on the side when you check it. # OFF-PITCH: # Cos I'll be standing
on the side when you check it. # So you're... In the end,
when you combine those... HARMONISED: # Cos I'll be standing
on the side when you check it. JACOB HARMONISES These chords are incredibly dense,
complex chords. # Ba-ba-ba-ba, when you get off... # ..your trip. # Really dense, jazz-inspired, classical-inspired chords, and all I'm thinking about is the way in which the notes move between each other as melodies, and then does it feel good?
And otherwise, there are no rules. So much of what he does
is at the edge of the impossible. # Don't you worry 'bout... Jacob's homage to the Stevie Wonder
classic also contains a multi-instrumental
flourish. The guitar, mandolin, double bass,
keyboard, piano, djembe drums and other
percussion instruments are all being played by Jacob. # Don't you worry # Don't you worry 'bout a thing # Don't you worry # Don't you worry 'bout a thing. # Anyway, it got to the point
where the video was done, and I put "Don't Worry 'Bout a Thing
by Stevie Wonder, "arranged and performed
by Jacob Collier" in this typeface font. And there's always a moment
when you get that feeling, when you think,
"Am I ready to do this? "I'm not quite sure." Cos it's very personal, all this
stuff, for me, you know? The process of layering these tracks
and filming these videos takes time, and obviously you're
excited to share it. But I remember there was a part
of me that said, "Jacob, are you sure that
you want to do this?" Jacob at that time said, "I'm not sure I'm ready
to release it "and give it away into the world." And I said,
"I really understand that. "I think you'll make people's lives
a lot better if you do. "But I have a feeling, Jacob,
that if you do put it out there "that nothing will ever be
the same again." You take that leap and you don't
know what's going to happen after you take that leap. This is a screenshot of the moment
I pressed upload. Here it says "no views". JACOB LAUGHS From this exact second onwards,
the view count started to climb, and it climbed faster than I'd ever
seen anything climb before of mine. And within a couple of days,
it was... I think it was about 100,000. So I put it on Bandcamp,
which is the website, you know, it's like £1,
you can download it. And I'm looking at my
email thinking, "Someone's having a laugh!" This blew my mind. And this is an email I received
from Bandcamp. "Ba-da-boom," it says,
"another £12. "Greetings, Jacob Collier. "Herbie Hancock has just bought
a cart full of "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing,
Pure Imagination, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning..." And then I received this little
message that came with it. Says, "Wow, Jacob,
your stuff is amazing. "Please keep expanding in your life
as well as in your music. "I believe that craft may be
about melody, rhythm and harmony "of the notes, but music is
about life." Herbie Hancock.
Yeah. I will never forget the first time
I saw his YouTube video on Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing. It blew my mind. And he was a teenager, so I wrote
him a little letter, you know, telling him how much
I adored what he had done. There had been a decade before that
of just swimming in Herbie Hancock - harmonically
pianistically, pocket. I was just obsessed with him. And so here he is in my Gmail inbox
and I couldn't believe my eyes. The day that Jacob
uploaded the video, Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing,
it was everywhere. We got messages on Quincy's Facebook. Some of my artists had forwarded it to me. I was like, "OK, I gotta "show this to Quincy." Quincy Jones is one of the world's
most acclaimed music producers. Over six decades, he's worked with Aretha Franklin,
Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis, to name just a few. And I showed it to Quincy, and Quincy just lost his mind. He said, "I don't care
what you're doing right now, "I don't care how busy you are, "find this kid." So I get this email from actually
someone on Quincy's team saying, "Quincy's just seen
Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing "and just freaked out
and just wants to get on Skype. "Are you down?" I said, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm down. "Of course. When?"
So you're how old now? 18? By this point, I was 19, and I
woke up at seven in the morning. You can see the morning sunshine
here coming through the window. Yeah. This is the moment. You captured it!
I did. I thought, "You know what, I might
just screenshot this." Well, what else would you do
with him? Not call him? 12 notes all over the world
for 700 years, and you have to make it through
rhythm, melody and harmony. You have to make it work. Jacob knows how to make it work. The first thing he said was,
"Man, where'd you get those chords?" Whatever he does blows my mind. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! But he's that way with anything
he touches, though, and that's what... ..hypnotised me
when I first saw him. And action. JACOB BEATBOXES Today, Jacob's musical identity and multi-instrumentalist talents are complemented by his collection
of flamboyant shirts. Yeah, I'm trying to work out
which one I preferred. Number two, I think. Thanks.
You're welcome. THEY LAUGH So I want to start at the beginning.
Right at the beginning. What is your first musical memory? What do you retain now? First musical memory,
I would probably say, was sitting in that room over there, which was the music room
of the house, sitting on my mum's lap and watching her play the violin
above my head. And that was my first experience
of music and one of my first memories
ever, actually. My dad said to me, the moment Jacob popped out, he said, "You've just got to keep
playing to him. "Play him the lullaby.
Play him anything." I picked up the violin
around that time - I'd say probably 18 months
to two years old - and by age four or five,
I'd pretty much given up. Did it disappoint you that Jacob
didn't take up the violin? Oh, that's really interesting. I was impatient for results. I wanted to hear a sound
the moment that I could conceive it. So a drum or a piano
would go bang or smash, but a violin, it takes a year or so,
at least, to even make one note sound good
on the violin. Was I disappointed? No, absolutely not! I mean, the child showed me
already that he was so aware of the sound world. You don't need to have the violin. Suzie Collier is a classical
violinist, conductor and professor of music.
Down, then up. OK. But you're going to really sock
the bow with so much power. Jacob's mother, Suzie, she is
an incredible... I mean, a really amazing teacher
of music. I learn things when, again, through
the modern world of Instagram, I watch her. And I learn things, and you think,
"Wow, that's great. "I wish somebody had said that. "I'm really pleased
that I know that now!" CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS There's a story, isn't there,
about your Hoover? There is a story about our Hoover. It's really true. One day, the Hoover's on and I simply say... .."What do you think that note is?" Your mother came in with a Hoover
and asked you to tell her what note it was?
That's true. What...? How did you respond? Um, it was a funny thing. Because, obviously,
when you're growing up, there's sounds all around you. And many of those sounds
are pitched sounds, you know? The kettle goes boing
or the Hoover turns on or the microwave beeps
or the car alarm, whatever. And so what she began
to kind of enable in me was a sense of curiosity about
how that note feels or felt. "Sing that note, "see if you can kind of
resonate with it "and just get the same frequency." HOOVERS HARMONISE I have a sense that music somehow
is embedded in your DNA. Where does it come from? I had musical parents. They were both violinists. And this was my father's violin, which he bestowed upon me
when I was a student. And he said to me, "I think
this is the violin for you. "I think it will really
match your personality "and it'll bring out
the warmth in your playing." Your mother. Yes. Your brother. Indeed. There's you. And that's your father
in the background? That's my father. My mother was Chinese Canadian. She ended up coming over and went
to the Royal College of Music. My dad was the youngest student
at the Royal Academy of Music, and in the end they met. I moved into this house in 1989. From that moment, we've made music
in every single room in this house. OK. MUSIC STARTS I would just go over there and press
the play button on the CD player and just wonder what would come out,
you know? Mozart. Herbie Hancock. Bach. Benjamin Britten, obviously. # Peter Grimes! # Britten was earth-shattering to me
because it redefined the whole of what it meant
to be a singer, a musician, a composer, a harmonist. # Grimes! # It could be anything by Sting. # Every breath you take # And every move you make... # It was huge for me, Sting - to stand there with that bass
and sing. And he was the first person I ever
saw do that at the same time. "Oh, so you can do both?" On heavy rotation were people like
Stevie Wonder and Bobby McFerrin. HE VOCALISES He was the absolute master -
and still is the master - at using his voice
to be many instruments at once. It could be anything
by Earth, Wind & Fire. # Let this groove
light up your fuse. # From a very early age, complex harmonisations
caught Jacob's ear, especially the gospel-inspired
a cappella group Take 6. # But I've got something that
will never, ever fail # It's called love... Take 6 is one of my absolute
favourites of all time. They're doing this insane modulation
in harmonies. # Oh, but I wish we had much more # More love is what we need. # At around six years old, Jacob was
given his first Casio keyboard and a queue-based software program. The means for starting a music room
revolution were now in his hands. Let me take you right back. OK. This is 2006, so I was 11 and then turning 12. And I was obsessed with maths,
and I was also obsessed with music. And so my solution to this problem
was to harmonise the times tables with my little 12-year-old voice. No-one's ever heard these before. This is the first time I've ever
showed anyone this, really. Oh, let's do... Let's do three. # Three times table # Three times table... You've doubled your voice up?
Yeah, that's two voices. # Three times table...
Now three voices. And I'm playing bass. Here we go now! # Once times three is three, yeah # Two times three is six... #
Mm-hm. # Nine times table # Nine times table RECORDING: # Nine times table... # While he was working
on the times tables, they would be completely
caught in our heads and we would know those tables
back to front. Stuff that he's been into and stuff
that he's been working on has been a huge part of the kind
of soundtrack to my life. Here we go! # Once times seven is seven...
OK! # Two times seven is 14 # Three times seven is 21... # My whole family
would get sick of it. Just so sick of this recording. I don't really remember
it driving me crazy. I think you kind of just
get into the groove of it. SOPHIE LAUGHS INSTRUMENTAL What's it called, Ella? No idea. A lot of people
might assume that there was a massive musical rivalry
between us as siblings, but I think it would have been hard
if I'd been trying to be a professional musician,
you know, but my day job is to be
a structural engineer. Music is just so intrinsic
to what our family is. It's not really
a question of rivalry. I think there's been much more
of a focus on the joy of making music, often together. JACOB VOCALISES When Jacob was ten,
his parents separated and his mother, Suzie,
raised three children on her own. APPLAUSE You have been a single mum
for many years, so it's quite an achievement for you
having been able to do this, to harmonise your family, to create this sort of sense
of achievement. Are there tough times
you've been through? Are there times when people feel -
you feel - this is too much, you can't cope with it? If I just sit in that and just think
I'm just really alone with these children, then it becomes
such a huge and overpowering thing. Do we experience
the darkest of times? Absolutely. Absolutely! But positive energy, I think,
is always somehow in there pervading the very,
very darkest of times. In terms of the life bumps that he
and his family have been through, that's also a blessing because I think that's where
his drive comes from. The thing that's like, "Right, I'm
going to make something of this." APPLAUSE You like to perform. That engagement
with the audience is something. So this is obviously something
from very early on. Did you ever want to be an actor? I had a moment where acting surfaced
in my life, which was really fun. # Oh, what a day
I don't care if it's grey # If it's Christmas together... # Nine-year-old Jacob played Tiny Tim in a film version of A Christmas
Carol starring Kelsey Grammer. I started singing lessons
at age eight and they went till I was about
13 years old. I think the work on the
Christmas Carol film was really important, and we both
spent a long time out in Budapest. Tiny Tim! If I may, young sir? Here's his coat, mother.
Wait, we're coming. Thank you, Mr Scrooge! Why, you're as light as a feather! I believe we shall become fast
friends, young man, you and I. I could tell that he was taking in
all sorts of ideas about direction. I never really
seriously considered it, partly because
I was never very good at pretending. It's one of the reasons why,
in some ways, the music industry
can be a weird place to be because so many people
are performing and exaggerating themselves the
whole time, and it's all really... And I think my approach
to performance is always just
to sort of do the thing. The first instrument I truly
gravitated towards was the piano. This guy -
this is my original double bass. Yeah, it's quite a beauty. It wasn't till I was about 14
until I picked up the bass, which is my next instrument. And there's something about standing
with an instrument, as well. These two beasties
are called harpejjis. The way this instrument works
is you lay it on the floor, or you can put it
on a keyboard stand. And the first tune
I ever learned on a harpejji was this James Taylor song
called Carolina In My Mind. And this was sort of
the first challenge because I thought,
"If I can play this song, "it will unlock lots of other songs
that I can then play." And I haven't played it in ages... ..but it goes something like this. MUSIC: Carolina In My Mind
by James Taylor I had been really obviously obsessed
with chords for some time. And I think lots of young musicians
often come up against this moment where they think, "Well, I don't
know what I need to know next, "but I want to get to
that next stage." When I was about 14 years old, a family friend
introduced me to a piano player called Gwilym Simcock. And I managed to go to a gig
that he was doing, and it was a huge moment for me
because I realised, hearing Gwilym, that I didn't know anything
about the piano... ..but that there was so much
I wanted to learn. And at the end of the gig, I went up
to him with my mum at the end, and I said, you know,
"Gwilym, I'm such a huge fan "and I would just love
to have a lesson one day." I think he must have been
about 14 or 15 at that time. There's a long way for
many musicians to go at that stage, and I've taught many people
over the years. And, of course, at that stage, you're, a lot of the time, dealing
a lot more with the rudiments. And he said,
"Well, play me something." So, I played him something.
I can't remember what I played him. Probably a simple jazz standard
or something that I knew. And I basically used
these six fingers here. I didn't use these ones.
I just did this. So, I would play these really,
really dense chords and... Because that's what I knew
that he loved, as well. It seems like
a million years ago now, but I do remember
kind of some of his responses to the things I was suggesting and just his general approach
to what we were looking at. He told me something that kind of
surprised me and slightly miffed me, which was, "I think
you should practise some scales." That's what he said. He said, "When you have technique, "then your technique
will give your ears ideas." And I always thought that
your ears dictated everything. If you heard it, you could play it,
cos that was my experience. What I didn't realise is
if you give yourself a capacity that's greater than your ears,
then your ears just sponge up all the technique and grow, as well. It's impossible to take much credit
for anything that he's done. You know, everything is basically
self-taught with him, so the fact that
some of the music that I've made has had a nice impact on him
is very, very special for me. At around 2011,
so when I was 16, 17, that's when I made
my first-ever YouTube video, which was called Serendipity. This was the first moment
I tried to make something that I could look at
to go with what I was hearing. So, you're actually
trying different things, absorbing different things, understand where you're going
and where the journey's taking you. As you say, you then...
Exactly, yeah. And I didn't know where I was going, but I just tried
as much as I possibly could, so from times tables to
covering pop songs to harmonising, eventually harmonising jazz tunes. I wasn't thinking too much
about what I was doing. I was just doing things
that were the most satisfying to me. I kept uploading these videos, and each time I'd upload one, it would be another little bump
of audience members or whatever. I found Jacob
because I was half-sleep listening to a playlist
of choral music, and I woke up
in the middle of this piece by someone called Jacob Collier, and I thought he must be from
the 16th century. And he immediately
just won my heart, and I'd only heard one piece
at that point. Entered the rabbit hole on YouTube
of, like, all his amazing videos, like, him performing,
him doing his harmonies of, like... Him doing the covers.
And, yeah, it was... It's like a magician at work, like. Because Jacob's come up
during social media where you have direct communication
with your audience - there's no middleman at all - it's all perfectly suited to him,
just reaching you directly. He really was born
at the right time. And then came this arrangement of a Stevie Wonder song called
Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing. HARMONISES: # Don't you worry
'bout a thing... # Quincy was so in love with
Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, and later,
the Fascinating Rhythm cover that Jacob did, as well, that he would start
every single meeting by showing those two videos
to whoever he was meeting with. It didn't matter if that was
Paul McCartney or Queen Rania, he would show that video and say, "I've never seen anything
like this. Have you?" So, we invited him to come meet us
in person for the first time at the Montreux Jazz Festival
in Montreux, Switzerland. So, I thought, "OK, I'll go, then." I met him at the airport.
We went back to Montreux together. We entered this hotel lobby
and there was Quincy at this piano. And the two of us surprised Quincy,
and Quincy jumped up from his chair and was like, "Jacob Collier!" And he was like, "Show me some of
those chords you were playing." And he's saying,
"What are those chords on "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing?" And I'm saying,
"Oh, it was this chord." And then, "Oh, actually,
you can't play this next chord "cos it has a microtone in it. "You can't play it on the piano.
That note doesn't exist." And he's like, "Wow, that's cool.
Let's go to the jam." Because he's going to take us
into the future, I'd like you to get ready
for some real serious talent here. And Quincy gets the mic and says, "Right, I want to introduce you
to a young man, Jacob Collier." So, I stand up
and I play My Funny Valentine. Unscheduled late-night jams
are a Montreux tradition. That's Herbie Hancock sitting there, and I'm thinking... What a day! .."What a day!" You know,
my buffer is just full. I'm like... When I got a chance to hear him
in Montreux, that's when I got a chance to really hear his jazz chops. That's what we call that, right? And he's got the jazz chops,
that's for sure. And something happened. # Your looks are laughable... # Something kind of clicked. # Unphotographable... # And I just sort of felt like, "OK, "I don't know
what I'm going to do next, "but I think I'm in the right place
at the right time." When you meet an artist
for the first time, your priority is to get to know them
and their dreams. And then, that night, after hanging out
with all these people for so long and jamming in the jam
for four hours, whatever, I go up to Quincy's hotel room, and I sat on this balcony with Adam, and Adam said... You know, "What are you after
with all of this? "What do you want to do
with your life?" I said, "I don't know, man. "I don't want to be jazz Jacob
with a trio. "I don't want to be pop Jacob
with a mic. "I don't want to be
rock and roll Jacob at the front. "I think I need some time
to figure it out. "I'm not sure." Jacob has always kind of known what he wants to say yes to and why. And he said, "Do you think
I really need a manager?" I said, "I really don't know.
Maybe not." And when that call was made, Adam said, "Well, Quincy would
really like to manage Jacob." I said, "Would it be possible
to be friends first?" And it's gone down in history because obviously no-one's
going to say no to Quincy Jones! I wouldn't characterise it
as him turning, you know, working with us down. I think it was just
him being cautious. What I made clear was, "Look,
I have so much respect for Quincy, "but I need to do this on my own." It was on that call
that we made the famous decision to start off just being friends. We started helping
in every way we could. And a couple of months later, Adam had somehow found a way
to secure me a gig - my first-ever gig - which was opening for Herbie Hancock
and Chick Corea at the Montreux Jazz Festival,
summer of 2015. And, suddenly, I had a direction. That's the moment
when I received a Facebook message from a man named Ben Bloomberg. I saw this video. It was
Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing. And I sent a Facebook message, saying, "Hey,
I think you're really awesome. "I love to build things. "If you ever are interested
in something to build "or have any questions
about technology, let me know." As a music and technology innovator, Ben Bloomberg worked on
the MIT Media Lab programme Opera Of The Future. He also collaborated with pop stars
Ariana Grande and Bjork. The original message that
Ben sent to Jacob through Facebook ended up in Jacob's spam
in his email, and maybe a couple of weeks later, Jacob happened upon it
and forwarded the message to me. I looked at the message and said,
"Oh, man, this guy's from MIT. "We need to reach out to him." And then, all of a sudden,
I got a message back. They had been offered
a huge performance opportunity, and it was going to be
Jacob's first real performance ever. I got on Skype with Ben and I explained this idea I have
for a one-man show where I could be at the centre
of a circle of instruments and I could be somehow
playing them all at once, basically doing what I do at home
in stop time, but doing it in real time. And also, at the centre of
this kind of beast, I wanted to have this instrument where I could sing any note
and I could play harmonies and you'd hear my voice
singing all the notes of the chords. I wanted a way to stand on stage
and go, "Ah!" and you'd hear 12 voices come out,
basically. The harmoniser was one of the
first things that we thought about. Jacob would fly to Boston,
and in Ben's apartment, they would create the prototype
for a one-of-a-kind harmoniser, which would accompany Jacob
on his first official Montreux Jazz Festival performance. Jacob! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 20 years old. I promise you, you've never seen
this before or heard this before. Never! HE CHUCKLES Merci. And it was like
time stood still a little bit. It was like, "Well, here we go." Like, "This is the start
of something." HE HARMONISES I'm sort of standing there
like this... HE HARMONISES ..playing... I'm nailing all my musical parts.
I mean, that was fine. But just furtive-looking. HE HARMONISES I was basically inside my room. I hadn't left the room yet,
you know? And so... And you were in front of
hundreds of...? 3,000 people, yeah. And, you know, they didn't know... "Who's this boy in his pyjamas
on stage?" You know? # Don't you worry 'bout a... # And it was the start of learning
how to work with an audience. # Cos I'll be standing on... # Jacob also integrated a specially designed
video looping system for his live performances. HE HARMONISES At the time that he performed,
I wasn't thinking about his age. I wanted to hear his music. HE LAUGHS It was amazing.
He's such an amazing talent and he plays all these instruments -
drums... ..and bass and guitar
and percussion. The Montreux gig would ignite
Jacob's professional career. Thank you, Montreux. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Following this gig in Montreux,
I'd sort of gained a little bit of confidence. "Oh, I think
I know what I'm doing. "I think I'm ready
to make an album now." I had this idea on a flight
heading back home around that time, that there was this amazing
Beach Boys song called In My Room. And I always loved that song and I always felt
it's close to my heart because it's about this world
that you make in your room that's a safe kind of world, and you can go
and you can dream in the room and you can, you know,
"Do my dreaming and my scheming." It's just a gorgeous tune. # In my room... # And I thought, "Well, why don't
we call the album In My Room, "and I'll do the song on the album?" I want to make this album.
I just want to do it myself. For better or worse,
I want to do it on my own, with my own ideas
at the heart of it. And I felt like, really,
what I wanted to do was I wanted the album to represent
this world that I've created. I came up with this idea
for fundraising for the album that I thought would be pretty fun. I thought, "Why don't I get people - "fans - in the world "to send me little melody clips, "15 seconds in length, "of them singing, you know, a song
they made up or a song they like "or improvising or whatever?"
And then you pledge, I think it was $100
for this campaign, and in return,
I'll harmonise your melody and put it on my social media. It was a brain wave. It was one of those ideas
that he came up with that just... ..he just ran with. # Someday, when I'm awfully low # And the world is cold # I will feel a glow
just thinking of you. # HE HARMONISES # Someday, when I'm awfully low # And the world is cold # I will feel a glow
just thinking of you... # I think I loved the ones that
weren't necessarily amazing singers, but they did something
really heartfelt. # You got to keep it mellow # Ooh-ooh-ooh. # And Jacob sort of magnified that into something that is just
really moving to watch. They're so giving. # You got to keep it mellow
Keep it mellow # Ooh-ooh-ooh
Got to keep it mellow... # In some ways, that's when
Jacob's at his strongest, you know, when he takes something
that's ready-made and he's able to transform it
into something completely different, which can then bring a lot of joy not only to the original creator, but I think to everyone
who listens to it. It was so cool because
it was like solving sudoku puzzles. It was like, "Oh, today,
I'm harmonising this person "who is singing in a language
I don't speak..." # Vengo del otro lado
del charco... # "..a song I don't know." # Del otro lado del rio
Del otro lado del charco. # # Vengo del otro lado del charco
Vengo, charco # Vengo del otro lado del rio
Vengo, rio BOTH: # Vengo del otro lado
del charco. # Some of them are really challenging. Like, you know,
there was one baby who did one. Soley May was her name.
She was from Iceland. When you say a baby,
how old was she? She was probably one or two. # Twinkle, twinkle, little star... # In my mind, really interesting
kind of microtonal stuff was going on
cos there was no pitch reference. It was just free -
free from all pitch. # How I wonder what you are. # HE HARMONISES
# Twinkle, twinkle, little star... # # How I wonder what you are
Wonder what you are BOTH: # Up above the world # Chocolate biscuit! # It was able to transcend
so many different barriers. So, never mind
where you were in a world, who you are in a world, whether you can just about
put a tune together, whether you're five years old and
you're just learning how to sing, so many people's stories
underpin those #IHarmUs. # La-la-la-la-la-la-la,
la-la-la, la-la-ah! # JACOB HARMONISES # La-la-la-la-la-la-la # La-la-la, la-la-ah! # All right, here we go. Selfie mode. HE CLEARS HIS THROAT All yours. Take it away. # Swing low, sweet chariot # Coming for to carry me home # Swing low, sweet chariot # Coming for to carry me home. # APPLAUSE Wow. Come on. Bring it through. Outstanding work.
You went for that. It was great. Am I in the wrong profession? LAUGHTER # Swing low
Swing low # Sweet chariot
Chariot BOTH: # Coming for to carry me home # Swing low
Swing low # Sweet chariot
Chariot # Coming for to carry me # Home
Carry me home. # The #IHarmU enterprise
would help Jacob top up the budget
for his first album. You know, I realise how much work
it is to make an album. I kind of thought about the
different kinds of things I wanted to do. I wanted to
incorporate guitars, which I hadn't
really done that much. I wanted to do a couple of
cool a capella moments cos that was where I come from. I wanted it to be harmonically weird
and have cool rhythms in it. I mean, really,
I just wrote 11 songs. There's a lot of mixing. There's a lot of...
There's mastering to be done. The final mix of Jacob's new album
would take place in LA. We were trying to find
a specific console that could interface
with the software he uses to produce and record
and mixes music with. It just so happened to be that Hans Zimmer's studio
had that console. I went to Hans Zimmer's studio
in Los Angeles, and I went there with Ben. Hans Zimmer is one of Hollywood's
most acclaimed film composers. He worked on six
Christopher Nolan films, including Inception and the Batman trilogy. You know, we did three movies -
three Batman movies - and people think,
"Oh, it's three movies." It's not three movies.
It's six years of my life. What I didn't know was that Quincy Jones had booked
my other studio for Jacob to work at. And I remember, one day,
you know, coming out of my room, going into the kitchen
to make a cup of coffee, and there was a guy
who was just making a cup of tea and going off into the other studio. I'm going, "It's really weird,
there's this kid here, "and he looks just like
Jacob Collier." And somebody said,
"That IS Jacob Collier." Now we know how to... We took the tracks out of Logic,
in groups, and we mixed the album
on a console together, which was really cool. MUSIC PLAYS Shall we take out some...? Inevitably, what happened
was that Jacob just turned my studio into his bedroom. And the front door opens
and it's like Herbie Hancock's coming in,
Chick Corea's coming... I mean, it's like all my heroes, they're all coming through
my studio, not to see me. They're coming to see Jacob. Hey! Nice to see you.
Thanks for coming. This stuff is good. Quincy and Herbie
would just come and hang out. You know, we'd be working on a song, and Herbie and Quincy
would drop by at 4pm, and they'd stay till the early hours
of the morning, bopping their heads
and singing along, and there'd be a moment in a tune... There's a chord
that's a really unruly chord. HE SINGS UNRULY CHORD, THEY EXCLAIM Jacob always surprises me, always comes up with things
I don't expect. It got to that point
where Herbie goes, "Oh! Oh, man! "Wait, stop, stop, stop,
stop, stop, stop, stop." And we stop, and he's like,
"What is that chord?" And I was like, "Oh, it's this,"
and he's like, "Oh!" Oh! D, F sharp, A, C sharp. Oh, OK. So, he hears that chord and
he just can't believe he's heard it? He just goes,
"What? What have you done? What?" MUSIC PLAYS What?! What was that? HE LAUGHS He's never come up with
something that I object to. Maybe just questioning what he had
and what he was going to do with it. By the time he added
either the vocal or the instrumental background,
it answered my question. We just have such a nice
kind of chemistry, me and Herbie, cos we both just geek out
about the same kind of chords. D major seventh.
D major seventh, yeah. Cos you get the dominant at the top,
but the major seventh... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love that. I love the seventh. It was one of the most magical
couple of weeks of my whole life. He was leaving to go back to London. He's on his way to the airport
and we're talking on the phone. I think he phoned me
to just say thank you for letting me use the studio. And right at the end,
just before the phone cuts off, before he has to get out of the cab,
I'm going, "Are you ever interested
in doing a movie?" And he goes, "Yeah, of course." SHE SCREAMS, LAUGHS # You can sing what you want... # Jacob finish mastering
his first album and landed a Hollywood gig
with Hans Zimmer on a new animated feature,
Boss Baby. Oh!
# You can do it today... # Marcos, wait! Where are you? I think working on music for film
is a gorgeous challenge. In July of 2016, Jacob's first album,
In My Room, was released. # Take me # Anywhere you want to go... # It contained eight original songs
and three covers. # In my hideaway... # Every instrument on the album,
I played, every arrangement, I put together. # There's a song of love
that never dies... # One of the arrangements was for the
TV cartoon classic of the '60s... ..The Flintstones. # Flintstones
Meet the Flintstones... # # They're a modern
stone-age family... # HE HARMONISES My album came out and I thought, "This is what people do, isn't it? "They have albums that come out
and then they go on tour." HE SINGS With the help of Ben Bloomberg, the Jacob Collier dream
of taking his music room on the road would become a reality. # Secrets to... # It started out with a US tour
as just the two of us - a show every single day
in a different city. It was just me and Ben on the road. So, Ben was the entirety of the crew
and I was the entirety of the band. # In my room... # It was completely overwhelming. Eight checked bags
and then three carry-on bags. # Lock out all my... # And we thought we could
never do it again like this. We're going to...
We're not going to make it. We were so tired and ill
at the end of that tour. You know, we were just wrecked.
But so fun. You know, so fun. So amazing to share these songs that
I'd made, and play them for people. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE The world tour would keep Jacob
and Ben on the road for months. Thank you so much. One morning,
I'm just sleeping on Ben's sofa. He wakes me up in the morning
and I'm thinking, "What? What? "What is it?" And he says, "Dude, "you just got nominated
for two Grammys." And I said, "Really?"
And he said, "Yeah!" When, you know, it was announced that he was nominated
for two Grammys, I remember screaming at the top of my lungs. You know, the whole team was
jumping up and down and celebrating. And I said, you know, "Is that...?
Did that really happen? "Was it a dream?" And he said, "No,
it's genuinely just happened today." The two Grammy nominations were for the arrangements
of You And I by Stevie Wonder, and The Flintstones. And the Grammy goes to... ..Jacob Collier for You And I. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE In his category, Jacob was the
youngest Grammy-winner in history. Thank you to Mr Quincy Jones,
his team Adam Fell and Michael Peha, amongst others, who are here
tonight. Thank you to my... Suddenly, it feels very serious,
the whole thing. It doesn't feel like
just my experiment continues. It feels like,
"Oh, there's consequence". And the night wasn't over. And the Grammy Award goes to...
He needs to come back out. ..once more...
He needs to come back out. ..Jacob Collier for Flintstones,
my friends. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE People are watching, you know. People who aren't your fans
are watching. I think it was the first time
I'd ever thought that. People who aren't Jacob fans are paying attention
to what Jacob is doing now. APPLAUSE Shall we do some drums? Yes. OK. I never identified with
one instrument as being my thing, in the same way I did with genre,
in a sense. I used to sit in this room
and think, "I don't need anybody.
I can do everything on my own." But when you really sit
and think about it, nothing is ever truly isolated,
you know? Jacob's next album
would take on the challenge of collaborating with,
and composing for, a 50-piece orchestra
for the first time in his life. One, two, three, and... ORCHESTRA PLAYS I wanted to do something
with other people... ..because I've done so much
on my own for so long. I wanted to stretch out
and I wanted to collaborate. It was the Quincy Jones team
who introduced Jacob to the Metropole Orchestra
and its conductor, Jules Buckley. Jules Buckley said
he wanted to do, like, an orchestral,
collaborative project. And your mother was performing.
She was in the orchestra, yeah. We all went to Holland,
to Hilversum, and recorded. That was my first time
writing for orchestra, really. I did the orchestration
and I wrote it all out on paper. This is... This was
a whole new world for me. You know, I'd never written
for orchestra before, but to have a piece that was being played
by an orchestra, I wanted to make it really special. ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS HE HUMS ALONG Jacob's ambitions would expand
into a series of four albums. The first would be orchestral,
the next acoustic, the third would be primarily pop, and a fourth album is intended to be
a synthesis of the previous three. So, the world is alive. In the three volumes released so far
of Jacob's ambitious series, he collaborates with more than
two dozen musicians from around the world. # Lambo or the double R-Truck
Yeah, yeah... # On album three, released in 2020, Jacob works with
an LA-based musician and producer, Ty Dolla $ign, and UK R&B singer Mahalia. # Now that I am sober # I take back what I said... # Jacob asked me if I wanted
to be on one of his songs for his next album. When he called me and asked me,
I, like... Do you know what? I think
my whole experience with Jacob has just been a lot of surprises. The song is called All I Need.
It's from Djesse Vol 3. Here now, with help from Mahalia
and Ty Dolla $ign, Jacob Collier,
live from the lavatory. I remember Jacob texting me,
though, saying, "I think I'm going
to send this to Ty," and I said, "Who's Ty?"
And he said, "Ty Dolla $ign". I didn't know her. I'd heard of her. I like her voice, for sure.
She's incredible. # She got expensive taste, hey... # I've collaborated with
more than a few artists - Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey. I had so much fun making that song. # That you are all I need # You are all I need
Hey... # It was lockdown. It just kind of gave me
something to be excited about. # You are all I need... # Jacob did his part.
He sent me what he already had. I did exactly what I wanted to do.
I sent it back to him. # Cos I love your smile
and it makes me feel all right... # Now, Jacob's set-up
was in his bathroom, and his bathroom was gorgeous,
so I felt a little bit... I felt a little bit like I was on... Like I had drawn the short straw. # Cos every time I think about it
Can't stop thinking 'bout it # Can't stop thinking... # I think I had my mop brush.
I think I had a toothbrush. # You are all I need... # Next thing you know, he sent me
the one with Mahalia's vocals on it. That was incredible. # Let your love shine # Hey-ey-ey... # The video where
I appear in the mirror and there's that cloud of smoke - I think that was just VFX,
man, you know. HE CHUCKLES # Yeah... # # You will always be
the one for me... # And he made a couple of changes
to it. We dropped it. Next thing you know, I think
that song's nominated for a Grammy. # Let your love shine bright... # All I Need was nominated
for R&B Song of the Year, and the album it was on was up
for the ultimate industry award. Djesse Vol 3 was actually nominated
for Album of the Year. That's the biggest honour
you can get at the Grammy Awards. Musicians really respect
other musicians, no matter, you know,
how you look or what you wear. # Only me... # # Well, my friends,
the time has come... # Jacob would also collaborate with his all-time favourite
harmonising heroes, Take 6. To me, this was my childhood dream.
Take 6 are the boxes. That just blow... My mind was blown. They covered the Lionel Richie track
All Night Long. Quincy... Yes. ..holding the chord symbols. ALL: # Party, Karamu # Fiesta, forever... # Take 6 have been touring the world
for more than 30 years... ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to the stage Take 6! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE # No, no, no
See, I don't have problems... # ..and they would perform with Jacob
on American TV. We were flying home
to do this TV show with Jacob. We were all preparing
for what our parts were. Normally, no matter what it is, the guys will kind of listen and just kind of have
their heads back like this. When we were preparing for Jacob's, everybody was sitting on the flight
like this... LAUGHTER ..listening to their individual part
and doing this, for hours and hours of their flight. He's absolutely brilliant. THEY HARMONISE Hold it right there. And we actually had
a track breakdown when we went to Quincy's house
the night before we recorded, and there were 40 or 50 voices
that he had to reduce for the six of us
to be able to sing with him. # You and I
You and I # You and I
You and I # You and I... # THEY HARMONISE And then, in the thick of
producing his series of albums, Jacob received
the extraordinary honour of his own Night at the Proms. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CHEERING I had a concert at the BBC Proms
in London in 2018 - my own BBC Prom - which was just
an unbelievable thrill. It was also
a deeply emotional occasion for the entire Collier family. I love the Proms.
I'm a frequent Prommer every summer. To see Jacob having a Prom
for himself, it was just... It was unbelievable, really. HE HARMONISES I remember I was quite nervous
for him before. When he came on stage,
those nerves vanished. I could just see
he'd be able to do it. I grew up in the Albert Hall.
I went to Proms every year. Suddenly, it went from just Jacob... ..to this huge array of people,
this huge wave of energy, all these different musicians,
different styles colliding in real time
in a physical space, and it was extremely exciting. I remember the first conversations
about Jacob's Prom. He wanted all his idols to be there. He didn't want this
to be celebrating himself. Off the record, it was
unbelievably hard to put together cos he had so many different artists
that he wanted to involve. The evening featured
a number of Jacob's musical heroes. His mum was also in the spotlight. I remember just thinking,
just before standing up, just thinking, "I'm so lucky to be here... "..to be part of the orchestra, "to see my boy in action
and to actually play." Jacob also contributed
to the orchestration, which accompanied
his musical guests. Mr Hamid El Kasri. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE HE SINGS An extraordinary Moroccan master
musician called Hamid El Kasri, he actually came to the BBC Prom and performed
his first ever UK performance. Please welcome to the stage Take 6. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE When Take 6 began,
around '89, '90, right around there, we performed at Royal Albert Hall
a couple of times, and we now, going back years later,
on the Proms, we realise how big it was
and how prestigious it was. It was an amazing experience. # I really found # Someone like you... # When we were sitting in the audience while we were all preparing
for that show and watching him perform
with Jules Buckley and just the Metropole, it was... It was a wall of sound, but it was a blank canvas that allowed Jacob to do and to be everything that he was. # That you will be by my side
To see... # Everything that he was doing, it was almost like
it was in his playground. He's just a kid having fun. # My life is through... # Somebody said, "Jacob, we've got
a little surprise for you." And they put up
the footage of my dear dad playing at
the First Night of the Proms. NARRATOR: And there he is now,
Derek Collier, making his first appearance
at a Promenade Concert. Somebody managed to unearth footage
of his grandfather, who was the leader, I think, at
the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and he performed there
back in the 1960s. It's just
the most unbelievable thing. Jacob was really bowled over. He stood on that stage in 1964, and to be there,
however many years later - 52 - with my own Prom,
it felt pretty surreal. I wish he could have been
at that Prom. In some ways, he was there. After the Prom, we both burst
into tears when we saw each other because we both acknowledged
the same thing. He said, "I just felt
Grandpa was really there." APPLAUSE The audience applauds
the performance of Derek Collier. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE It was the most wonderful
experience, and I will never, ever forget it. What I see in Jacob
is the comfort he gets and the pleasure he gets from exploring this world
that he's in. Absolutely. And from family. Yes. From being... This gives him this anchor - the music room and you
and his sisters. He derives a lot from his family
and his home around him, but I can tell you that
he gives back in spades. He will move out,
at some point, I'm sure, but at the moment, because
he travels the world so much, and so much of the year,
it's quite a treat just to come back to London
and just come back to this place. And, boy, we really
love seeing him, as well. # Come alive, come alive
Come alive for me... # I made this last night.
It's a new idea. This year, I found,
sitting down to make music, it's never felt... It's never felt as pressurised
as this before. Rather than thinking,
"Oh, I'm just going to do "the next thing I'm interested in,"
there's a lot of kind of low-hanging fruit
that seems really appealing. Like, "Just do this, this,
this, this, and you could be..." And you can just take off. The pressure from our end
is for him to be true to himself, to continue to follow
his heart's dreams. Now, finally,
I have to look at these, don't you think? These are they.
These are the five Grammys. These are some Grammys, and they
each have a different tone. Look. GRAMMYS CHIME METALLICALLY Isn't that lovely? The only thing I've ever
really cared about creatively is to sustain the curiosity that I've always had
throughout my whole life. There's a whole bunch of inspiration
within him he hasn't... ..he doesn't even know about yet. He can do anything,
so what do you do? And I feel like
the best thing to choose is the thing that really resonates
with your soul. # You've got a friend... # Jacob... THEY CHUCKLE ..I want to ask you about the future. Hmm. What about the long-term future?
Where do you see yourself? Creatively,
nothing really scares me, but I do think that
the amount that's possible, sometimes, is intimidating. I call it
creative infinity syndrome. He should have no bounds, as in,
he should forever be genreless, he should forever be defiant, he should always just be a maverick. You know, honestly, I feel like the music will always give me
the answers that I need. And, sometimes, when I feel
a bit doubtful or a bit lost or a bit confused or a bit aimless, which I do all the time,
to be honest - I'm a human - sometimes, the music just says,
"You know what? "We're going to go here now." # Cos I'll be standing on the side
when you check... # And did you hear from
Stevie Wonder at all? JACOB CHUCKLES I managed to meet him. I shook his hand. He was like,
"Yeah, what's your name, man?" And I said, "Oh, my name's Jacob -
Jacob Collier." And he said, "Oh, yeah,
you did that version of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing,
right?" I said, "Yeah, I did, Stevie.
I did." And he said, "Oh, it's great.
It's fantastic. I loved it." And my life was made at that moment. That meeting, I'll never forget it
as long as I live. I think this room
will always be quite sacred for me. And even when I'm not in here, I think the spirit of it
and the groundedness of it is something that I love
to carry with me wherever I go, whether it's on stage
or recording other people or just travelling
and living some life, you know? I feel so much gratitude
for the people around me - my family and my friends
and the team. And I'm sure I'll travel all over
the world in the next few years, and I'll be touring and recording
and learning and sponging things up, but it's always a privilege
to come back here to my original family home and to kind of lay down my materials
and have a bit of a rest and then think, "Well, now what?" They're calling me now. Just as we were calling it a wrap, Jacob received a phone call
from the Quincy Jones team. He had been nominated
for two more Grammys. Yo! ON PHONE: You just got nominated
for R&B Song. Oh, what?! R&B Song.
Oh...! Are you...? You just got nominated.
There's two now? So, what's the Grammy for?
I just got two... Well, it's coming in now, but
I just got two Grammy nominations. Oh, wait, I want to watch this!
Guys, you're on camera. We're filming a documentary
right now. It's on a YouTube stream. Oh, wow!
