Grammy Nom, Collaborators & Extra

Taking note of Jacob Collier’s star-studded Djesse album collection, now on its fourth installment, can really feel like attending probably the most expansive, open-minded track pageant you’ve by no means heard of — with a roster of visitor artists spanning fresh hit-makers, instrumental legends and international choruses and orchestras. However regardless that Collier’s recordings have change into as recognized for his or her various array of big-name visitors as his personal presence, his full-lengths weren’t at all times outlined by means of collaboration.

“The primary album I ever made, In My Room, was once an album written, recorded, organized, produced and combined solely on my own, and my first international excursion of this album was once with a one-man display,” explains the 30-year-old studio savant of his 2016 debut album. The solo revel in sufficiently satisfied him there would possibly in reality be energy in numbers: “By means of the tip of that procedure, I used to be deeply in a position for collaboration.”

The guest-heavy Djesse units — pronounced “Jay Cee,” like Collier’s initials — have yielded two album of the yr nods for the performer-­writer-producer, together with this yr for 2024’s Vol. 4, the collection’ ultimate access. “I’m certain the center of my international will at all times be, partly, in my little room the place the adventure first started, in that solitary sanctuary,” he displays. “However greater than ever, taking part seems like a large a part of what I’m right here for.” Those are simply probably the most names who’ve entered the Collier Constellation — on Djesse Vol. 4 and past.

AESPA

Collier knew the best-selling South Korean quartet, who he calls “one of the adventurous and fresh K-pop teams I’ve ever heard,” will be the absolute best fit for the “galactic multigenre shape” of Vol. 4’s “Over You.” “Plus,” he provides, “we’re all Crocs lovers, so it was once supposed to be.”

Anoushka Shankar

The British American sitar luminary (and daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar) lends her “incalculable greatness and magic” to the rousing “A Rock Someplace,” which Collier says lets in the track to “bridge easily from the traditional and classical to the glowing trendy.”

Brandi Carlile

Collier first met fellow Grammy darling Carlile via Joni Mitchell, when Carlile invited Collier to Mitchell’s area to ­privately sing her track “Little Inexperienced” to her as she recovered from a mind aneurysm. So for a track referred to as “Little Blue” on Vol. 4, “it felt handiest proper to ask Brandi to provide her inimitable storytelling magic [to the song].”

Camilo

“Camilo is natural pleasure in human shape!” Collier raves of the Colombian pop hit-maker, whose bilingual crooning leads “Mi Corazón.” “His skill to hop between Spanish and English is subsequent stage. He brings an out of this world power to the entirety he touches… and his moustache is an advantage.”

Chris Martin

Collier says the Coldplay frontman, who sings on “Over You,” has change into “like a brother” since they met in 2019: “With a presence and openheartedness that’s so transformative, he’s the type of mentor everyone will have to have.”

Chris Thile

The Nickel Creek mandolinist, whom Collier calls “a real grasp of his craft,” lends his plucking to “Summer time Rain,” along fellow alt-folker Madison Cunningham. “[He’s] my final dueling spouse,” Collier provides, “but in some way, we attach so deeply on a musical stage.”

Daniel Caesar

The R&B big name lent his buttery vocals to Vol. 1’s nu-soul jam “Time On my own With You.” Collier says recording with Caesar “felt like having a pal come over to hang around after college. He’s that uncommon aggregate of extremely cool and extremely heat — one of the most main lighting fixtures of this era of artists, but so all the way down to earth.”

Dustin Yellin

A mission as sprawling as Djesse wanted formidable paintings to compare, and for that, Collier enlisted artist Yellin to create a “30-sheet glass sculpture, with greater than 3,000 miniature cut-out paper components glued inside and between the sheets, to shape a three-­dimensional silhouette of the ‘Djesse head,’ ” which has been featured on all 4 collection volumes. “He’s a maverick, a legend and a grasp world-builder,” Collier gushes.

John Mayer

Collier was once ecstatic to have the celebrity singer-guitarist lend his “grasp contact” to a six-string solo on mild ballad “By no means Gonna Be On my own,” additionally that includes Lizzy McAlpine’s vocals. “John’s the grasp of tone, style and impeccable phraseology… And a best gent, besides.”

Kimbra

Some other shut good friend and common collaborator, the New Zealand singer-songwriter didn’t seem on Vol. 4, however she did jam with Collier as a different visitor at the North American leg of the accompanying international excursion. “She is this type of excursion de pressure in track,” he raves. “A firecracker of a publisher, singer and world-builder.”

Kirk Franklin

After creating a pact at the 2022 Grammys crimson carpet to paintings in combination, the fresh gospel legend sang on and/or lent route of his eponymous Singers to a couple of Vol. 4 tracks. Collier says his day within the studio with Franklin in Arlington, Texas, “modified my existence… The neighborhood and effort surrounding him is not anything like I’ve ever noticed.”

Metropole Orkest

The “mighty Dutch bunch” has equipped backing for the Djesse collection since its starting, with Suzie Collier carrying out it on Vol. 4. He says the “shape-shifting, multigenre” ensemble has “performed a pivotal section [in] my musical adventure, each onstage and within the studio.”

Michael McDonald

The undisputed King of Yacht Rock maintains his personal legacy of surprising collaborations on “Anywhere I Move,” the place his “iconically unequalled vocal tone” powers what Collier calls “a bit of of an homage to the track [fellow guest singer] Lawrence and I grew up paying attention to.”

The Thriller of the Bulgarian Voices

Partial to this choir since he found out it as a teenager, Collier calls snagging the gang for “All Round You” at the Vol. 4 deluxe version a “bucket-list collaboration. Their sound is life-changing — 25 singers from 12 regional traditions, all coming in combination to create one thing so natural, agile and breathtaking.”

Oumou Sangaré

“A Malian Wassalou icon” who has gave the impression on a couple of Djesse units — maximum lately as a part of a world all-star lineup of visitor vocalists on Vol. 4’s “Field of Stars Pt. 2.” — Sangaré’s presence was once “so majestic,” Collier says, “the room felt so small compared.”

Rapsody

The Grammy-nominated North Carolina MC “introduced such a lot intensity and magic” to Vol. 3’s “He Gained’t Grasp You,” offering what Collier calls her “uncommon mix of ultra-hip and ultra-heartfelt” rhymes.

Steve Vai

The mythical 64-year-old axeman for Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth is now an excessively pricey good friend who has taught Collier about “the entirety from chords to Zappa to philosophy to the character of [the] track trade.” Vai performs on 3 Vol. 4 tracks, on which Collier calls his “wild mastery… not anything wanting astounding.”

Suzie Collier

Collier’s mom — an the world over recognized conductor and his “first collaborator as a human being” — has labored with him since Djesse’s first installment, and she or he carried out on a couple of Vol. 4 tracks: “My pricey mom has taught me extra about track than virtually any one I will be able to call to mind,” he says. “Her musical sensitivity and mastery has formed such a lot of who I’m.”

Tori Kelly

Since they become buddies in 2017, the artist Collier calls “arguably probably the most proficient vocalist on the earth at this time” has gave the impression on a couple of tracks of his, together with Vol. 4’s stirring a cappella rendition of the pop same old “Bridge Over Afflicted Water,” additionally that includes John Legend.

This tale seems within the Jan. 25, 2025, factor of Billboard.