Isaiah Collier is one of the most talented jazz saxophonists and flautists of his generation. He has displayed that mastery on his last six albums, including 2024’s powerful The World Is On Fire. On his new EP entitled Joy, Collier has done an about face. There is less angst and more enthusiasm. He’s playing piano and singing for just the second time on record. He’s using the full pallet of his musical gifts. It was time for a shift in philosophy. “The change is because that’s what life is. I think these past few years we’ve been so caught up in all the socio-political conflicts that we often forget the remedies that exist in real time. We’re not the first people on the earth to deal with these types of adversities, not the first time we’ve heard of massive genocides, massive socio-economical transitions and strife. Yet when all those periods were going on, so was the music. It’s a challenge. Things from the civil rights era, everything from World War II, Ethopia…Rwanda, apartheid. There was still the sound of hope which becomes the foundation for joy to exist. It is my belief that the most political thing we can do, despite what people are trying to rob us of any practical optimism and enthusiasm about fighting this uphill battle is that this is our insurance. We can still be present in all of it. It’s an act of resistance by resisting to fall into despair,” Collier said.
Collier will perform at the DC Jazz Festival on September 5. His program that day will honor one of his inspirations, John Coltrane, in the year of his centennial. “You have a chance to listen to his recordings when he was in the Navy and then you hear nothing that sounds like who we hear now. To know that he could start from such a place, that he actively sought out refinement. Enough was never enough. He was also just a student immersing himself everywhere. His influence of sound came from his travels and being intentional about being present in those travels. It came from the people he was spending time with, being intentional about how he was spending time around them. He continued to fight the good fight of developing himself,” he said.
The 28-year-old continues to manage the trick of looking back, as he pushes the music forward and maintains awareness of the present.
WBGO is offering a bus trip with tickets to the DC Jazz Festival and will be on-site to provide coverage of the event.
Watch/listen to the full interview here
