Jacob Collier capped off an already wild year by winning two Grammy awards a few weeks ago for "Flintstones" (Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals) and “You And I” (Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella). This was the year where the British multi-instrumentalist says he took his sonic wonderland playground – his “room” in his parent’s home in the UK – and take it on the road.
"I can do 12 vocal harmonies on the spot. I can sing a note. Then, the note is sampled and comes out as to 12 notes that I’m singing. We got a stick bass on one side. A grand piano. Two keyboards. There’s a percussion table with whatever I can find that makes a sound. Then a drum set. A guitar. A melodica and things like this. It’s a massive circle of different sounds and there’s me running around like a mad chicken in middle just organizing the sounds and playing them all at once."
On this program, he talks about his Grammy-winning debut In My Room, this new technology he helped invent at MIT, plus we devise our own musical playground for him -- albeit a modest one -- in our WBGO studio. We surrounded Collier with a grand piano, fender rhodes, and C-3 Organ. Before the engagement, Collier admitted that this would be the first time he would play the organ. Listen to him do it in a live studio session.
This audio is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.
