Listening to Jacob Collier’s star-studded Djesse album series, now on its fourth installment, can feel like attending the most expansive, open-minded music festival you’ve never heard of — with a roster of guest artists spanning contemporary hit-makers, instrumental legends and global choruses and orchestras. But though Collier’s recordings have become as known for their diverse array of big-name guests as his own presence, his full-lengths weren’t always defined by collaboration.
“The first album I ever made, In My Room, was an album written, recorded, arranged, produced and mixed entirely alone, and my first world tour of this album was with a one-man show,” explains the 30-year-old studio savant of his 2016 debut album. The solo experience sufficiently convinced him there might truly be strength in numbers: “By the end of that process, I was deeply ready for collaboration.”
The guest-heavy Djesse sets — pronounced “Jay Cee,” like Collier’s initials — have yielded two album of the year nods for the performer-writer-producer, including this year for 2024’s Vol. 4, the series’ final entry. “I’m sure the heart of my world will always be, in part, in my little room where the journey first began, in that solitary sanctuary,” he reflects. “But more than ever, collaborating feels like a big part of what I am here for.” These are just some of the names who’ve entered the Collier Constellation — on Djesse Vol. 4 and beyond.
AESPA
Collier knew the best-selling South Korean quartet, who he calls “one of the most adventurous and contemporary K-pop groups I’ve ever heard,” would be the perfect match for the “galactic multigenre form” of Vol. 4’s “Over You.” “Plus,” he adds, “we’re all Crocs fans, so it was meant 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 Somewhere,” which Collier says allows the song to “bridge effortlessly from the ancient and classical to the sparkling modern.”
Brandi Carlile
Collier first met fellow Grammy darling Carlile through Joni Mitchell, when Carlile invited Collier to Mitchell’s house to privately sing her song “Little Green” to her as she recovered from a brain aneurysm. So for a song called “Little Blue” on Vol. 4, “it felt only right to invite Brandi to offer her inimitable storytelling magic [to the song].”
Camilo
“Camilo is pure joy in human form!” Collier raves of the Colombian pop hit-maker, whose bilingual crooning leads “Mi Corazón.” “His ability to hop between Spanish and English is next level. He brings an incredible energy to everything he touches… and his moustache is a bonus.”
Chris Martin
Collier says the Coldplay frontman, who sings on “Over You,” has become “like a brother” since they met in 2019: “With a presence and openheartedness that’s so transformative, he’s the kind of mentor everybody should have.”
Chris Thile
The Nickel Creek mandolinist, whom Collier calls “a true master of his craft,” lends his plucking to “Summer Rain,” alongside fellow alt-folker Madison Cunningham. “[He’s] my ultimate dueling partner,” Collier adds, “yet somehow, we connect so deeply on a musical level.”
Daniel Caesar
The R&B star lent his buttery vocals to Vol. 1’s nu-soul jam “Time Alone With You.” Collier says recording with Caesar “felt like having a friend come over to hang out after school. He’s that rare combination of incredibly cool and incredibly warm — one of the leading lights of this generation of artists, yet so down to earth.”
Dustin Yellin
A project as sprawling as Djesse needed ambitious artwork to match, and for that, Collier enlisted artist Yellin to create a “30-sheet glass sculpture, with more than 3,000 miniature cut-out paper elements glued within and between the sheets, to form a three-dimensional silhouette of the ‘Djesse head,’ ” which has been featured on all four series volumes. “He’s a maverick, a legend and a master world-builder,” Collier gushes.
John Mayer
Collier was ecstatic to have the superstar singer-guitarist lend his “master touch” to a six-string solo on gentle ballad “Never Gonna Be Alone,” also featuring Lizzy McAlpine’s vocals. “John’s the master of tone, taste and impeccable phrasing… And a top gent, to boot.”
Kimbra
Another close friend and regular collaborator, the New Zealand singer-songwriter did not appear on Vol. 4, but she did jam with Collier as a special guest on the North American leg of the accompanying world tour. “She is such a tour de force in music,” he raves. “A firecracker of a writer, singer and world-builder.”
Kirk Franklin
After making a pact on the 2022 Grammys red carpet to work together, the contemporary gospel legend sang on and/or lent direction of his eponymous Singers to multiple Vol. 4 tracks. Collier says his day in the studio with Franklin in Arlington, Texas, “changed my life… The community and energy surrounding him is nothing like I’ve ever seen.”
Metropole Orkest
The “mighty Dutch bunch” has provided backing for the Djesse series since its beginning, with Suzie Collier conducting it on Vol. 4. He says the “shape-shifting, multigenre” ensemble has “played a pivotal part [in] my musical journey, both onstage and in the studio.”
Michael McDonald
The undisputed King of Yacht Rock maintains his own legacy of unexpected collaborations on “Wherever I Go,” where his “iconically unmatched vocal tone” powers what Collier calls “a bit of an homage to the music [fellow guest singer] Lawrence and I grew up listening to.”
The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices
A fan of this choir since he discovered it as a teen, Collier calls snagging the group for “All Around You” on the Vol. 4 deluxe edition a “bucket-list collaboration. Their sound is life-changing — 25 singers from 12 regional traditions, all coming together to create something so pure, agile and breathtaking.”
Oumou Sangaré
“A Malian Wassalou icon” who has appeared on multiple Djesse sets — most recently as part of a global all-star lineup of guest vocalists on Vol. 4’s “Box of Stars Pt. 2.” — Sangaré’s presence was “so majestic,” Collier says, “the room felt so small in comparison.”
Rapsody
The Grammy-nominated North Carolina MC “brought so much depth and magic” to Vol. 3’s “He Won’t Hold You,” providing what Collier calls her “rare mixture of ultra-hip and ultra-heartfelt” rhymes.
Steve Vai
The legendary 64-year-old axeman for Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth is now a very dear friend who has taught Collier about “everything from chords to Zappa to philosophy to the nature of [the] music business.” Vai plays on three Vol. 4 tracks, on which Collier calls his “wild mastery… nothing short of astounding.”
Suzie Collier
Collier’s mother — an internationally known conductor and his “first collaborator as a human being” — has worked with him since Djesse’s first installment, and she conducted on multiple Vol. 4 tracks: “My dear mother has taught me more about music than almost anybody I can think of,” he says. “Her musical sensitivity and mastery has shaped so much of who I am.”
Tori Kelly
Since they became friends in 2017, the artist Collier calls “arguably the most gifted vocalist on the planet right now” has appeared on multiple tracks of his, including Vol. 4’s stirring a cappella rendition of the pop standard “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” also featuring John Legend.
This story appears in the Jan. 25, 2025, issue of Billboard.
The post “Behind the Scenes of Jacob Collier’s Wide Web of Collaborators” by Josh Glicksman was published on 01/28/2025 by www.billboard.com