Isaiah Collier: "The World is on Fire" at The Freight

Twenty-six-year-old Isaiah Collier is a musical virtuoso in the truest sense of the phrase. He began playing saxophone at age 11, and his intuitive proficiency earned him attention early on. Ever since, his band Isaiah Collier and The Chosen Few has been turning ears, following in the Spiritual Jazz tradition of artists such as John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

In February 2025 he is featured on NPR's "Jazz Night In America", and graces the cover of Downbeat Magazine’s April 2025 issue. The Chicago Tribune named him Jazz Artists of the Year for 2024. His recording The Almighty (Division 81 Records, 2024) was selected as one of the Top Ten Jazz Recordings of 2024 by The New York Times. He was featured in The New York Times Fall Arts Preview in September 2024. Downbeat Magazine selected him as one of 25 for the future in their 90th Anniversary issue in July 2024. He won the Rising Star Award in Downbeat Magazine’s critics poll for Tenor Saxophone (2023), and Soprano Saxophone (2024), and has been named a Steve Jobs Fellow.

There’s a regal, elegant manner to Isaiah’s stage presence: he’s over 6 feet tall, thin, deep brown, with high cheekbones. When not playing, he is patiently waiting – not contemplating his next move, but listening to the musicians who accompany him, listening to their stories. He explains that he’s never really hearing himself, he’s hearing others play: some people have fire, others have air.

Isaiah Coller’s sound is a dynamic flurry of metaphors, yet he can hold back when necessary. He plays his influences, which he describes as a “sonic time machine; you can’t really put a time or destination on it.” As far as where he plans to take his music, Collier says, “I reach backwards, and forwards simultaneously when creating art and what is ahead of me is the past.”

You may also like the following events from Freight & Salvage:

• This Wednesday, 14th May, 06:30 pm, Meet the Music Team at The Freight in Berkeley
• This Saturday, 17th May, 08:00 pm, Bill Frisell – Good Dog with Greg Leisz, Tony Scheer, and Kenny Wolleson at the Freight in Berkeley
• This Sunday, 18th May, 08:00 pm, Bill Frisell – Good Dog with Greg Leisz, Tony Scheer, and Kenny Wolleson at the Freight in Berkeley

Also check out other Music events in Berkeley, Entertainment events in Berkeley, Arts events in Berkeley.