Jacob Collier Improvises the Nat...

[Applause]

thank you

all so those of you who are familiar

with this concert series will know one

thing for sure and that is that the man

who is responsible for my presence and

your presence and ultimately all our

presence whose name is Ben FS he is a

man he is a man of great esteem and one

of the things that I fell in love with

watching him do as a kid was improvising

with the orchestra yeah has anyone seen

these these legendary videos people have

seen

this and so so I've known Ben for a few

years now and we've been sort of back

and forth online we only met for the

first time in person about 3 days ago it

was it was cool it was good and um and

Ben wanted to challenge me to something

which I've never done before in my

entire life which I kind of enjoy in

theory and the idea was what if I stood

there and tried to create something with

the orchestra that has no plan no sheet

music um no rule book and no prior

discussion and I I somehow agreed to

this and so what I will now attempt to

do with your grace and permission of

course is to try to create something

from scratch with these masterful

musicians that you see before you right

before your

eyes

Okay

okay

so if it seems it seems prudent to

begin by giving everybody a note yeah

everyone deserves a note

note um let's see bases if you could

play yeah I like that Chelly

B let's have a gsh in the

horns yeah uh let's have a seash shop in

the

clarinet let's double the SE shop in the

violas actually do seop is cool yeah uh

let's have an F SHP in the

seconds maybe an otive down yeah that's

much better okay uh let's have I I'll

split the first into two we'll have um

aop let's have it yeah maybe just down

the octave yeah that's cool and then uh

dis yeah that's lovely okay and now

let's have a uh flutes let's have you on

be that's lovely okay um tuba feels

proven to be an e as

[Music]

well yeah that's really warm and lovely

trombones could be a b just above

there um trumpets there are three of you

let's have C SHP b a Shar m

yeah that's lovely okay uh bassoons um

gsh is cool

ative yeah great tempany

e yeah

um let's see we say it again obos obos

of course okay I always forget um be

be yeah

great can we have a snon roll please

snon

roll just a quiet

one yeah oh that's feels good it feels

good um could you play a a low E like a

tremolo e with a pedal

down yeah and harp you can glander in in

a B major scale B major

[Music]

scale okay

[Music]

louder

[Music]

quieter okay that's a good place to

start it's a good place to start

fantastic so um thank

you what I'd like to what I'd like to

try is something I've always wanted to

do this boys wanted to do this in

general but this particular thing

um so why are you playing those

notes I'm going to give you a signal and

I think I think the signal will

this and the further I go from here the

more Out Of Tune you have to play right

I'm so interested about see how this

goes could be really bad so okay let

actually let's let's start with just

just the just the first in fact just the

first first you're on dsh right okay

let's see the dsh

okay

ready that's great one more

[Music]

time oh that's cool okay thank you very

much I'm I'm really intrigued to hear

what that sounds like with everybody can

every can everybody play but being in

tune is way overrated I'm serious Out Of

Tune is where it's at okay let's so do

everyone remember your your note that

you just had yeah let's let's see

everybody's note what you just had

[Music]

and okay okay so I'm going to stand up

here like a professional and then as I

bend my arms whoever I'm looking at with

my eyes that's how people look isn't it

their eyes if I'm looking at you when I

do this then go out of tune you you you

know the drill okay here we go

[Music]

oh okay everybody

wow

okay very

cool

right

so okay let's put that c to the end of

the piece all right put that c to the

end of the piece for the for the

beginning of the piece

I want to build up a Groove yeah it's

how the best things are made start with

a Groove okay let's

see

harp on D octaves

apart yeah is there a

vione

cool so every four notes can you play

Just A Conant D in the middle of the

wone

[Music]

yeah actually can you play um the D

below and

[Music]

then I really like

that

okay so keep that

going let's see bases if you could just

do a pits G

[Music]

Chelly DB

D yeah

[Music]

cool okay Charlie stop everyone else

keep going so the song I have in mind

that could fit with this has kind of two

main chords and one of them is that

chord and the other is if you go one

note up in the G Major scale

right can you play that EC

e b

[Music]

it and back down

again

lovely back

[Music]

up okay now Chell and Bas to

stop you guys are going to be going a

while I just I like it too much keep it

going keep it

going cool yeah okay I want to build a

chord I kind like kind of like chords

like to build a build a chord on top of

this and we're going to start with um a

really high D over here you yeah and

then the C next door

let's have a b over

here can I split you I'm want to split

you in two I'll have a b and an a that's

all right oh that's

lovely and let's have a high G up

here I'll split you in two we'll have an

f and a g f

g that's really

lovely who was an are you f okay cool

[Music]

no that's fine FP and G right okay can

all the FPS everyone else keep playing

it sounds lowly F shops just go down to

an F natural ready

[Music]

and and now down to an

[Applause]

yeah back up to

F that's so nice

let's have the Chelly and bases Back 2 3

four

[Music]

okay strings except for bases and Chell

stop so you guys keep going can we hear

that tremolando tremolando instead 2 3

4 that's

lovely okay

okay everybody stop everybody stop I

like that very much very much I'd like

to do it a little bit

slower we can I hear that two 3 4

[Music]

I like that very much thank you thank

you thank you okay so so far so good so

far so good so I I could literally do

this for hours but I know I'm on a

strict time limit so I have I have one

more thing to request and this is of the

woodwinds and brth because since you

have you've just been sitting there so

patiently um I'd like very much to hear

the flutes and the obos play A Melody

within this time that goes one 2

right which is DB g e

flat let's say that one 2

3 yeah they're good they're really good

turns out I wasn't wasting my time with

you obos I'm sorry I neglected you Al

it's very good okay on that last chord

on the I'd like to do like a massive

chord here and the chord is as follows E

flat E flat um let's see how many col El

have we got one two three okay great

let's do um

C right uh um let's have horns on a g

actually half horns on a g half horns on

A U two on an A A U two onergy cool d

flat oh so d

flat up the

octave yeah

tuba E flat uh E flat

a trombone be

flat um G Trump is is fine

G okay and stop so here's how it's going

to go it's going to go 1 2

[Music]

3 yeah can we hear that 1 2

[Music]

3 cool

lovely okay that's basically everything

we need I

think

right so so now let's try and do the

let's try and do the whole piece and I'm

going to try and sing a song and I hope

it's going to fit with this I hope well

we'll figure it out let's begin again

with the harp and the viop which I love

dearly one

2 for

[Music]

okay let's do that one more

time I know I stand in line until you

think you have the time to spend an

evening with

[Music]

me and if you go some place to dance I

know that there still a chance you w be

leaving with

me and afterwards we drop into a quiet

little place and have a drink or

[Music]

two and then I and spoil it all by

saying something stupid

like I love

[Music]

you

[Music]

2 3 4 no

[Music]

[Applause]

thank you very much

Jacob Collier Improvises the National Symphony Orchestra (Live from The Kennedy Center)

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