The World Is on Fire
Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few
Division 81
18 October 2024
It’s a Friday night in the People’s Republic of Berkeley here on 20th June, and the man that Downbeat has hailed as “The Next Sax Giant” is back in the Bay Area for a Summer Solstice blowout at The Freight. Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few are billed to be featuring his latest album, 2024’s The World Is on Fire. However, word has also come down that the group will then head to Los Angeles on Saturday for a free outdoor show in downtown Los Angeles, featuring a webcast in which they will honor the 60th anniversary of John Coltrane‘s A Love Supreme with a complete performance of the influential masterpiece.
“It’s like driving a vintage car,” Collier told JazzTimes about performing A Love Supreme. “You don’t want to rack up all the miles on it. The composition requires great care, understanding, and expertise to drive it.”
It then comes as a pleasantly fitting surprise when Collier announces that the first set of the show at The Freight will be a performance of A Love Supreme! It seems sensible to take that vintage ride for a test drive before the main event, and attendees here in Berkeley are the lucky beneficiaries. Isaiah Collier has indeed staked out a reputation as a spiritual jazz giant for modern times with such efforts as his 2021 album Cosmic Transitions, which was recorded in 2020 on Coltrane’s birthday of 23rd September in the same room at the legendary Van Gelder Studio where A Love Supreme was recorded in December 1964 (and released in January 1965).
The performance here at The Freight quickly becomes compelling in a way that surpasses expectations, with Collier bringing Coltrane’s famous “sheets of sound” to life, as his cascading runs of notes and arpeggios generate a mesmerizing sonic waterfall. That compels some attendees to make a brief exit from the intimate auditorium to step outside for a moment, enhancing their sensory experience, as the set has become a special treat.
“It is not easy to do… unless you have one of the guys who studied with one of the guys on the record,” Collier explains in between tracks regarding the performance of A Love Supreme, referring to bassist William Parker, who studied with Coltrane’s bassist Jimmy Garrison.
“We talk about the technician, but we should discuss the man,” Collier continues in praise of Coltrane. He speaks to how Coltrane changed the entire concept of hearing music and explains that “this music known as jazz is from an oppressed people robbed of 200 years of cultural expression” and that therefore “most of this music wasn’t supposed to exist”.
It’s an intense and dazzling performance featuring piano player Brandon Coleman (known for his work with Kamasi Washington‘s West Coast Get Down) and drummer Tim Regis (who played a great duo show with Collier at SF Jazz earlier this year), both of whom also delve deeply into the seminal spiritual jazz classic.
Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few are genuine tone scientists, and their sonic artistry is a multi-dimensional experience to behold. After a brief set break, the quartet returns to perform songs from The World Is on Fire. Collier dedicates “The Hate You Give, Is the Love You Lose” to the current state of the world. It feels like the Coltrane vibe remains in play, as Collier’s flowing melodies weave with Coleman’s dynamic piano.
“We had an orange agent, and we made it through, but now we’ve got a cheeto… I think our job as artists is to serve as the scribes of the times,” Collier says in reference to the highly unpopular President of the United States. He goes on to lament the Trump regime’s “cultural assault on the arts”, saying, “Thank you for being here, this is what resistance looks like.”
This pledge of sorts to the Rebel Alliance serves as an introduction to the album’s “Ahmaud Arbery”, a song dedicated to a young Black man shot and killed in Georgia while simply jogging, as well as “all those who have been unjustly slain in the past few years”. Coleman impresses with his high-energy piano lines, while Collier sits back as the rhythm section pushes forward. Then he comes in with his cathartic sax melodies, as the music laments the senseless loss of too many innocent lives.
The 27-year-old Isaiah Collier is clearly an old soul, speaking truth to power with a wisdom that comes across as both humble and defiant in a Jedi-like manner. This wisdom comes out again when he speaks of the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol as treason.
“Two hundred years ago, they had the guillotine… That obviously did not happen,” Collier laments in a tone that speaks volumes about this historic omission of justice. He goes on to connect the dots to the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis in 2020, where the National Guard was sent in, yet not for the rioters storming the Capitol. “If most of those Proud Boys had been black?” Collier asks rhetorically, noting America’s hypocrisy displayed.” When our head fails to set an example, chaos becomes our aesthetic. This brings us to our next composition, ‘Amerikkka the Ugly’, hope you enjoy…”
It’s downright refreshing to hear a talented young musician like Isaiah Collier speak truth to power in such a way, in an era in which all too many performers are reluctant to speak out on socio-political issues for fear of alienating some fans. Collier has no such fear, and America sure could use more musicians who aren’t afraid to speak their truth in service to the Resistance. Collier’s tunes don’t just rant about the darkness, however, as the record also features inspiring numbers like “Our Truth Is Marching On” and “We Don’t Even Know Where We’re Headed”. There’s no doubt that Collier also knows rebellions are built on hope.
Tuning in to the webcast from Los Angeles a day later, it appears that taking a first pass at A Love Supreme in Berkeley has enabled Collier to go even deeper into the next performance of the album before a much larger audience. The music seems to flow through him effortlessly, as if he’s simply a conduit for pulling the notes from the ether into this third-dimensional realm.
Then there’s a big encore jam with a posse of singers to generate an uplifting spiritual vibration that makes it feel like love and unity can indeed triumph over fear and division. It’s just a matter of getting everyone on the same positive wavelength, as inspiring musicians from John Coltrane to Isaiah Collier demonstrate time and time again.
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