Isaiah Collier

Born in 1998 and active in Chicago, Isaiah Collier is part of the city’s jazz scene at the crossroads of spiritual jazz, free jazz, and post-bop nourished by Afro-American traditions. A saxophonist, composer, but also a pianist and drummer, Isaiah Collier grows up in a family of musicians, sings in church and then approaches several instruments before dedicating himself to the saxophone from childhood. Trained notably at the Chicago High School for the Arts and then at the Brubeck Institute in California, he develops an intense language, marked by collective improvisation, the legacies of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, and the energy unique to Chicago’s creative scene. After beginnings with Ernest Dawkins in the Young Masters Quartet, Isaiah Collier forms his group The Chosen Few and releases Return of the Black Emperor in 2019, then Cosmic Transitions in 2020, Lift Every Voice in 2022 and The Almighty in 2024. In parallel, he appears in projects by Angel Bat Dawid and Kahil El’Zabar, and also records under other formats, notably Parallel Universe in 2023. A member of the AACM, Isaiah Collier develops dense, spiritual and collective music, where the fervor of breath, repeated motifs and long improvised forms occupy a central place.