As if by design, British wunderkind Jacob Collier has become the Arts & Lectures (A&L) bookend man this season. The uniquely gifted singer/songwriter/arranger/keyboard wizard and populist conceptualist showed up in solo mode last fall at Campbell Hall. Back then, Collier was the opening act of the UCSB Arts & Lectures series. On Sunday, May 19, Collier returns in fully dressed, full-band mode at the Arlington Theatre, this time as a late-booking finale of A&L’s season. Some kind of symmetry principle is at work here.
The contrasting double play bookings also amount to a Collier coup for the host organization, given his wildly expanding fan base. His previous appearance here came while he was in the “neighborhood,” playing the Hollywood Bowl — his Arlington show is part of a promotional tour for his ambitious Djesse Vol. 4 album, including such roomy venues as the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles the following night. On tour, his opening act is another ambitious pop style-bender, the New Zealander Kimbra, who has worked with Collier, as on the exhilarant “In My Bones,” from Djesse Vol. 3.
An SRO crowd showed up at Campbell Hall to catch his solo show, consisting of only his voice, piano, and a synthesizer, plus a surprisingly game and flexible audience sing-along component (the “audience choir” in Collier world parlance). His devoted fans get the benefit of the artist’s killer genius for layering vocal parts, spontaneously and otherwise. And yet, while Collier’s solo show steered away from his original connection to the jazz scene and veered into the realm of hip piano lounge music, the Collier operation goes big and wide in Djesse mode.