Jacob Collier at Her Majesty's Theatre (7/6/25)

CC image courtesy of TED Conference

Jacob Collier is hailed by some as the greatest musician on the planet. Barefoot in bright baggy pants he would have looked quite at home in the Haight-Ashbury of the mid-60s. He’s a carefree spirit who’s a very physical performer. His dazzling piano technique is punctuated with bouncing and swinging legs; he sways and rocks and bends as he plays – his music is visual and aural.

A multi-instrumentalist, tonight Collier limits himself to piano, guitars and keyboard. He began at the piano playing a jazz derived version of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You that danced in and out of the recognised melody. As he did throughout the performance, he takes a song and pushes it to its outer limits – returning every now and then to a familiar lick or lyric that keeps you on track. He plays with timing so that things get sped up to quite frenetic levels, or slowed right down and sometimes with a sudden stop – often with a surprised glance towards the audience. He’ll take a vocal as high as a kite and then bring it back to a deep bass – he really has an extraordinary vocal range – and occasionally uses this as a point of humour to get people laughing.

Collier has fun with music; he mucks around with it. His boundless talent means he can take any piece of music anywhere he wants. He takes his audience on a fun ride with songs they know and love, and his adoring fans give him total license to do so. The ‘respect the melody’ school of thought may not be so forgiving.

A gorgeous original tune (Little Blue) showcases his exquisite dexterity on acoustic guitar, and at one point has Collier playing guitar with one hand and piano with the other – it sounded great.  On his five-string guitar version of The Beatles’ Norwegian Wood he takes what is already a sweet melody and makes it sweeter and more complex. Beautiful.

Back on the piano he extemporizes a version of Georgia On My Mind into unchartered territory – both with keys and voice – and it feels like this is where he is happiest: jazz like improvisations around a theme he loves exploring.

Then there’s the pub choir part of the show!! His audience know his schtick and as so many prefer to do these days they have come along to be part of the show and not just listen. At any given moment Collier will leap to his feet or put down the guitar and become the choir master!  Clearly many in the audience already know the drill, but even so it is remarkable how quickly he has almost everyone singing harmony together. It’s quite joyous and for the most part sounds pretty good as well.

He teased his way through an inventive version of Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) and closed  with a rousing group vocal chorus on Queen’s classic Somebody to Love to adoring applause.

Jacob Collier is blessed with amazing musical skills and we’re fortunate that he shares his joy and talents in such performances. He is as much showman and entertainer as musician. And this was more than a concert – it was more like a community event.

However, the cross-legged on piano stool homily about the importance of music was a touch cringeworthy. And I’m reminded of Mozart’s critics who as much as they loved his music bemoaned the fact that he played too many notes! But these are minor quibbles in the overall wash-up – an astonishingly gifted musician with a desire to share his joy of the thing he loves.

This review also published on The Clothesline.

Destinations - Belle Chen

 

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Thu 21 Oct, 2021.

We have entered a world where one person, with the aid of musical technology, can sound like an ensemble. A solo performer, playing the role of technician as much as musician, can manipulate loops and sampled sounds of multiple different instruments with buttons, sliders and dials to create layers of sound of almost infinite variety.

In this work from Belle Chen, what looks like a grand piano – and occasionally sounds like one – but also functions as a synthesiser, organ, bell ringer, Theremin, and bass guitar. Add a layer of various sounds from nature (birds, water) and you have a luscious soundscape with many guises – soft and delicate, loud and dramatic, ambient and meditative – that feels very much like an exploration into the inner workings of the artist’s consciousness as they lead us through an unchartered path.

Chen’s touch on the piano is gorgeous. Her classical background was often in evidence but when her left hand keeps playing a gentle rhythm on the keys while the right hand adjusts the volume or unleashes the next effect that’s another thing altogether. At times she leans over the keys to hammer or pluck the strings under the lid, or uses the African kalimba to generate melodies and percussive patterns.

Projections that are displayed from floor to ceiling canvases either side of the artist and offer clues to Chen’s Destinations. Many of the images are abstract and allow the audience to build their own connections between image and sound, but other images of the natural world are intriguing and sometimes sadly poignant. I’d suggest that the visual impact of the projections may have been more impressive towards the back of the theatre.

Destinations is a performance of many textures; on offer was a multi-modal experience of contemplation and reflection; a celebration of the creative powers of an accomplished artist. Or one could just as easily close your eyes and simply listen to a bold composition that dares to be exploratory and expose the vulnerability of the artist and the creative process.

(This review also published in The Clothesline.)