TD Victoria International JazzFest Presents: Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few

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Friday, June 30th, 2023
9:15 PM

“5 stars for Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: Cosmic Transitions (Jazz, 2021). This offering is the third from the Chicago-based saxophonist, who at the age of 23 has transcended the realm of prodigy. It is not his age that shocks. It is what he’s playing.” – Downbeat Magazine

Chicago-based twenty-four-year-old saxophonist, writer, educator, composer, and rising star Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. Since playing saxophone at age 11, his band, Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few, now turns ears from across the world. He has worked with such notable musicians as Rene Marie, Chance the Rapper, Stefon Harris, Roy McCurty, Carmen Bradford, Carl Allen, Bennie Maupin, Bobby Broom, Quincy Phillips, Lisa Henry, Wyclef Gordon, Lewis Nash, and more. There’s a regal, elegant manner to Collier’s stage presence. His sound is a dynamic flurry of metaphors, drawing influence from saxophone masters such as John Coltrane, Ari Brown, Roscoe Mitchell, and Gene Ammons. He plays these influences, which he describes as a “sonic time machine; you can’t really put a time or destination on it.” Collier has released three albums to date, I am (11) – Beyond (2022), Return of the Black Emperor (2018), and Cosmic Transitions (2021). Michael Ode drums, Jeremiah Hunt bass, TBA keyboard