Adelaide Cabaret Festival review: Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival show offers an escape from the winter cold that is as warm and intimate as it is formidable.
Jacob Collier arguably has the most musically innovative mind of this century.
Collier first became well-known through his multi-layered, multi-instrumental and harmonically complex arrangements of popular songs. With this as a starting point, one could easily imagine his concert, while impressive, might be an intellectual exercise. However, this would be wrong.
On a blustery winter night in Adelaide, Her Majesty’s Theatre is perhaps the warmest place one could be. Trees adorned with fairy lights form the backdrop of the stage.
The crowd’s vocal cords are warmed as the first point of business, with the building of a delicate seventh chord to form the basis of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s ‘Pure Imagination’ — a fitting start to the evening.
At first glance, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival might seem like an unusual home for a run of performances by Collier. But on entering his world, the idea of cabaret falls into place.
Collier’s show relies on the audience to co-create the experience alongside him. His signature move of turning crowd to choir breaks down the gap between artist and audience that often seems impenetrable in larger venues. The dialogue exists from start to finish.
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This connection is perhaps best highlighted by the inclusion of his song ‘Time Alone with You’ after an audience request. Despite his gentle protestations, a cheer of encouragement from the crowd pushes him over the line. Without an arrangement pre-planned for a song that usually sits on funky backbeats and regularly changes key, the audience is necessary to bring the song to life. This version of Collier’s show as a solo performer creates an entirely intimate space.
Collier’s setlist largely consists of elaborate covers, from classics like Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Georgia (on My Mind)’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ to more quirky favourites such as ‘Beyond the Sea’ by Charles Trenet and ‘Norwegian Wood’ by The Beatles. He shows a fluency across genres.
What sets these renditions apart from covers you might hear elsewhere is the virtuosic instrumental playing and harmonic treatment that only Collier can deliver. The harmonic world inside his mind is as vast as they come.
Joy and a childlike wonder for music seems central to this show, epitomised by the way he runs barefoot whenever he’s moving on and off stage.
It is unexpected how comical Collier is, with whimsy a main character of the evening.
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His picking style on his five-string guitar is mesmerising, creating a dynamic, woody sound that is hard to replicate.
When they do feature, Collier’s originals light up the audience. ‘All I Need’, ‘The Sun Is In Your Eyes’ and ‘Witness Me’ receive the solo treatment in this show. Fan-favourite ‘Little Blue’ receives an extra special gasp of delight from across the theatre.
He moves through an array of instruments during the evening. He, quite literally, runs between piano, vocoder and several guitars, sometimes all in the same song.
In one moment, he offers a hand each to play piano and guitar simultaneously, a display of his virtuosity. For artists with skills at Collier’s level, this could easily be a display of showmanship designed to impress for the sake of being impressive. But in this context, he seems to be chasing that skill as a means of getting as much possible out of the music.
There are moments he brings himself and the audience choir right down before relishing in an explosive array of guitar or piano notes.
The night’s closer, Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’, gently patters away as Collier moves off the stage.
Throughout the show, Collier keeps returning to the word “delightful”. Both in his descriptions of the evening, the audience and the experience that music brings to the world. However, it also seems the perfect word to describe the evening’s performance in its intimate joy.
With three standing ovations, it seems the crowd agrees.
Jacob Collier performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre on June 7 and 8 as part of Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The festival runs from June 5 to June 21 at the Adelaide Festival Centre.