ISAIAH COLIER
Isaiah Collier is a Chicago/Brooklyn based Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, curator, activist, motivational speaker and educator. Collier is most known for his work as a saxophonist, and drummer with his group "Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few". Collier's sound and approach is drawn from the influences of John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Wayne Shorter, Ari Brown and Gene Ammons. Collier has shared the stage with many distinguished artists—Chance The Rapper, Lewis Nash, Waddada Leo Smith III, Junius Paul, James Carter, Rene Marie, Marquis Hill, Bennie Maupin,Rudy Van Gelder, Angel Bat Dawid, Kahil El’Zabar and many more. Collier has performed at The Jazz Showcase, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, Lithuania Jazz Festival, The White House, Chicago Jazz Festival, New York Winter Jazz Festival, The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, Sons D'hiver Festival(Paris), The Logan Center, The Harris Theatre. Isaiah Collier is also a former fellow of the prestigious Dave Brubeck Institute Stockton,Ca.
Collier works with the public school systems in hope of bringing cultural revitalization to minority students and the community . He believes in giving the full history to give context to the transformation of the music to what it has become today. Whether it was geography or through civil tension in America. Nevertheless he does not shy away from these topics, but welcomes them so that students may be in the know. In addition to being proud of these accomplishments. He wants the students to know where it all came from so that can go forward properly. Collier has even gone into juvenile detention centers to conduct masters classes and also giving words of wisdom to the discouraged and misguided youths.
His work as a composer is very versatile and pulls from many different concepts. Such Barcodes sequence, Planetary alignments, Astronomy, Astrology, Geometry, and World music. As of late a lot of his work has been centered around modal music but with emphasis on understanding the modes but also the modes within them. he has been working on barcoding music, which is a system he created with a Nomenclature to desonate the different numbers as quantifiable notes. It's almost like having a tonal and atonal present at the same time. Along with his concept of time traveling and quantum physics.
Even with all of this Collier still ties all of this with his perspective on social justice and inequalities of America. Collier has been a part of many protests and led one as well. He believes that social justice goes beyond race but the Truth. For if we all are in the dark about what has happened, then we will continue to fight each for one torch to keep ourselves warm. Verses taking the torch to a fire pit so that we all may be encompassed by warmth of the fire. Just like Collier believes in making people aware of the things aware of the truth. From perspective on European Classical music is truly African in origin via the way of Moorish and Kemetic Influence which give us the instruments of Europe and Asia. The further back you go into history the darker it gets, just like the people who originated from.
