photo Michael Gaertner
Isaiah Collier and The Chosen Few
Isaiah Collier – tenor and soprano saxophone
Benito Gonzalez - piano
Micah Collier – double bass
Michael Shekwoaga Ode – drums
You are twenty-two, play the saxophone, and your idol is John Coltrane. You pick three rhythm players, the day of Train's birthday and the studio where he recorded Love Supreme to turn the inspiration of Mercury retrograde into your suite. Sounds normal, but how much guts does it take?
On 23 September 2020, Isaiah Collier (Chicago, 1998) stepped into Rudy Van Gelder's legendary studio in Inglewood Cliffs. Forgiveness, humility, understanding, truth and guidance are the cosmic beings one faces in the test of self-control and on the path of spiritual self-realization. The Cosmic Transitions album opens with a meditative repetition of the suite's title over bells, chimes and shakers, seamlessly transitioning into a short free-improv. He further scatters thunder and lightning in tenor and soprano, kicks and screams, rambles over an obsessive groove and races with a roaring swing. A sudden spilled ballad is just a sharp flash of seeming peace before Mercury charms Collier into the fiercest freestyle of the Cosmic Changes finale. "It is not his age that shocks. It is what he's playing," noted DownBeat magazine critic Joshua Myers, giving it five stars.
Collaborations (selected): Chance The Rapper, Stefon Harris, Carmen Bradford, Bennie Maupin, Wycliffe Gordon, Angel Bat Dawid and tha Brotherhood and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. With The Chosen Few, he released albums Return of the Black Emperor (2018), The Unapologetic Negro (Live At The Coda Club Cafe) (2019), Cosmic Transitions (2021) and the EP Lift Every Voice (2022), while on his latest recording, Beyond (2022) was accompanied only by drummer Michael Shekwoaga Ode (they signed the duo as I Am). Return of the Black Emperor (2018), The Unapologetic Negro (Live At The Coda Club Cafe) (2019), Cosmic Transitions (2021) i EP Lift Every Voice (2022), dok mu je na aktuelnom izdanju Beyond (2022) društvo pravio samo bubnjar Majkl Šekvoaga Ode (potpisali su duo kao I Am).