SOUNDTRACK: JACOB COLLIER-Tiny Desk Concert #48 (July 9, 2020).
I had never heard of Jacob Collier until his recent Tiny Desk Concert. He was an impressive fellow to be sure. He has an amazing vocal range and he can play just about any instrument you can think of.
So it should come as no surprise that Collier’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert is over the top as well.
But even knowing all of that, it is a still mind-blowing. Because he has seamlessly spliced four videos of himself together. So you have four Jacobs in four outfits playing everything in a room that is full of instruments.
The set starts with “All I Need.” Lead singer Jacob is sitting on the floor in front of a steel drum. This Jacob also plays the melodica solo. On the left is keyboardist Jacob who plays the organ and, of course, mid song switches to piano and back again. On the right is bassist Jacob who plays some excellent bass–including a nice solo at the end. Way in back is Jacob on drums. You can’t see him all that well, but you can hear his contribution perfectly.
Polymath musician Jacob Collier has been championing this style of one-man-band music videos since 2012, singing every note and playing every instrument. His cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”earned him a devout YouTube following at the age of 19, and he hasn’t slowed down since. The London wunderkind owns four Grammy Awards already, including two at the age of 22 in 2017…. Now 25, and with nearly a decade of experience producing every aspect of his own music from his home, Collier is uniquely positioned to crank out his best work from quarantine. In this video, each of the four parts was recorded in a single take. Pay close attention ; it’s easy to get tripped up inside Jacob’s head as he arranges this Rubik’s Cube of a video production, which feels both like a magic trick and a no-strings-attached bedroom session.
Introducing the next song, one of the Jacobs (they fight over who is the actual Jacob), says that “Time Alone With You” is a little funky–hope you don’t mind. It’s groovy bass line and smart snapping drums. The end of this song is a wonderful musical freakout with a vocal section that leads to a series of four fast drum hits (including Jacob banging on the piano and some bass rumblings as well). There’s even a jazzy breakdown (real jazzy bass lines) which allows one of them to whisper “jazz.” Because even though he is super talented and a very serious musician, he’s also goofy (look at his clothes).
He’s in the middle of releasing his ambitious four-volume record, Djesse. The last song in this video is the premiere of his new single “He Won’t Hold You,” which will appear on Vol. 3, due out later this year.
When piano Jacob changes the mutes in the piano bassist Jacob talks about the record. “He Won’t Hold You” song starts a cappella in four part harmony (with himself). He can ht some really deep notes and the harmonies are super.
The only problem for me is I don’t really like his style of music. Which is a shame because he’s so talented, I want to watch him all day. It’s just not my musical scene.
[READ: July 10, 2020] “Immortal Heart”
This is a lengthy, somewhat complicated and ultimately devastating story.
The story is quite long and it revolves around a woman and her Precious Auntie living in the Western Hills south of Peking. Their village is called Immortal Heart and The Liu clan (her family) has lived there for six centuries. They were ink stick makers. They had expanded to a shop in Peking–a sign of great success.
Precious Auntie was born across the ravine in a town called Mouth of the Mountains. The village was known for dragon bones, which poor men collected from the Monkey’s Jaw cave. Precious Auntie’s father was a renowned bonesetter and he used these dragon bones as part of his work.
Precious Auntie could not speak. She communicated with the narrator. Lu Ling, through sign language which only the two of them knew. Precious Auntie was rather naughty and their silent language allowed her to speak her mind freely (she disapproved of bound feet for instance).
When Precious Auntie was nineteen she had two suitors. A man named Chang was the local coffin maker. He cut corners and sold cut rate coffins, but he was very successful. He too would be opening a shop in Peking eventually. But he was a cruel man, harsh and nasty. He wanted Precious Auntie to be his second wife. She wanted none of this.
The second suitor was a man known as Baby Uncle–the narrator’s father’s youngest brother. He found her delightful and she felt the same way.
But fortune tellers disagreed. The fortune teller told Chang that their marriage would be great. A different fortune teller told baby Uncle, his would be disastrous.
Chang proposed and when Precious Auntie revealed she didn’t want to marry the man, her father made an excuse–that she couldn’t bear to leave him along (his wife had died). It would have been a successful ruse if she hadn’t then accepted Baby Uncle’s proposal the next week.
When Chang saw her, he threw her to the ground and cursed her.
Her wedding to Baby Uncle was forthcoming. On their way to Immortal Heart they were attacked by the Mongol Bandit. Her father was killed.
But before she was knocked unconscious she recognized that the Mongol Bandit was in fact Chang. When Baby Uncle found them on the side of the road, he was so angered, that he shot his rife into the air, which forced his horse to kick him–killing him as well.
Precious Auntie became a widow and an orphan on the same day. When she got to the Liu household (the Liu family was still going to take her in–the dowry had been delivered after all), Precious Auntie tried to kill herself by drinking hot resin. She survived, but could no longer speak.
That’s only half of the story, which is really just a precursor to Lu Ling’s story. But the important information about this story is nobody knew the truth. Everyone assumed that Precious Auntie’s father had fallen from his horse and that baby Uncle was killed by accident. They had no idea that Chang was behind it all.
Lu Ling had Precious Auntie as her nursemaid, but her younger sister, Gao Ling, was always treated as the favorite by their mother. The girls were definitely jealous of each other. So when Lu Ling was invited to Peking to meet with a prospective husband, Gao Ling was quite angry.
When It was revealed that the potential husband was in fact Chang’s son, the family was thrilled because he was part of a successful family. But when Precious Auntie found out she freaked out.
Precious Auntie wrote Lu Ling the truth in a letter, but Lu Ling refused to read it. She didn’t want Precious Auntie changing her mind about her future family. So when she did not react as Precious Auntie thought she might, the two fought.
I’ve spoiled some of the story, but so much happens in the next few pages that none of that spoiling matters all that much. There’s a ton of new story to come.
Leave a Reply