Jacob Collier will be headlining this year's Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
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The stage is set, the anticipation is building, and one of the most inventive musical minds of our time is ready to meet Cape Town.
Multi-Grammy award-winning artist Jacob Collier is heading to South Africa to headline the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), taking place on March 27 and 28 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).
For Collier, this is more than just another international performance - it’s a deeply anticipated first encounter with a place that has shaped his musical world from afar.
“The history of South African music is obviously extremely deep, and it had a real impact on me as a child,” Collier says.
“It’s one of these iconic musical places that I’ve never been to before, so the fact that it’s my first time coming makes it all the more special.”
Despite his global success and reputation for boundary-pushing music, Collier speaks about Cape Town with a genuine sense of curiosity and excitement.
Long regarded as one of the premier jazz events in the world, Africa’s Grandest Gathering has been firmly on his radar for years.
“I’ve known about the Cape Town Jazz Festival for many years, and lots of my friends who’ve performed there have said the most amazing things about it,” he says.
“So I’m just super, super excited to get a taste of it for myself.”
And while his performances are known for their complexity and innovation, what truly sets Collier apart is his commitment to connection - particularly with his audience.
Collier’s live shows are anything but conventional. Rather than maintaining a distance between performer and audience, he actively invites the crowd into the music, transforming entire venues into spontaneous choirs.
“I’ve always loved to play with the connection between the artist and the audience,” he explains.
“There’s far less of a separation than people think.”
That philosophy feels especially fitting for South Africa, a country with a rich and globally respected choral tradition.
“Of all the places I’ve imagined or heard about, Cape Town is one of the most thrilling to imagine,” Collier says.
“I know how deep the choral roots are in South Africa, so I have pretty high hopes for that audience.”
His approach is intuitive and inclusive - no prior musical training is required.
“The way it works is I create the conditions for people to sing in different ways - maybe some choral response, maybe some chords and harmony,” he says.
“Everyone’s welcome to join in and participate in whatever way they want to. It’s a very open and loose feeling.”
And with South African audiences known for their energy and musical instinct, Collier is expecting something truly special.
“I’m very confident that their musicality and general enthusiasm will help this show be what it’s going to be,” he says.
Part of what makes a Collier performance so unique is its unpredictability.
Unlike traditional concerts, his shows are largely improvised, shaped in real time by the energy in the room.
“When I perform solo, which I’m going to do in Cape Town, I tend to improvise almost the whole show,” he says.
“I might have a few ideas of songs to perform, but I always let the audience steer the show in whatever direction they want to.”
It’s a collaborative process - one that ensures no two performances are ever the same.
Collier’s upcoming performance also comes on the heels of his latest project, "The Light For Days", which marks a shift in his musical approach.
Known for his expansive, multi-layered "Djesse" series, this album strips things back to something more intimate.
“I spent a lot of the last 10 years making these really big, kaleidoscopic albums,” he says. “After touring that for a while, I wanted to have a bit of a change.”
That change came in the form of a creative limitation.
“I set myself a challenge of making this album with just one instrument - the five-string guitar,” Collier explains. “I wanted to write some new music and also do a few renditions of songs I love within that one sound world.”
The result is a warmer, more personal body of work - one that reflects both growth and introspection.
Even more meaningful is where the album was created: the same room where his musical journey first began.
“I’m speaking to you from that room right now,” he says.
“There’s something about travelling around the world and then coming back home and letting all that inspiration settle.”
“It really kind of felt like coming home,” he adds.
One of the standout tracks from the album, “Something Heavy”, captures a universal emotional experience - and one that Collier feels is particularly relevant today.
“It’s a song about the feeling of letting something go,” he says.
“Sometimes I get the sense that the world is carrying a lot… and I wanted to explore what it might mean to let some of that weight fall away.”
For Collier, music becomes both expression and release - a way to process not only personal emotions, but collective ones too.
“I think the best way I’ve known how to do that in my life so far is to make music,” he says.
Collier’s approach to songwriting is as fluid as his performances. There’s no single starting point - just an openness to wherever inspiration leads.
“You can start a song anywhere,” he says. “From a feeling, a lyric idea, a harmonic idea, or even just a sound.”
That same openness extends to how his songs evolve.
“When I play songs live, they change,” he explains. “I take something the way I wrote it, and then it can become something totally different.”
By contrast, recorded music captures a moment in time.
“When you listen back, it’s like meeting the music as it was at that moment,” he says. “But live, it’s something you can transform.”
When asked about his personal favourites, Collier admits the answer is always changing - but a few songs hold particular significance.
“Right now, ‘Something Heavy’ is a really beautiful one for me,” he says. “I’ve formed quite a profound connection with that song.”
He also highlights 'Little Blue' as a favourite to perform with audiences, and 'Hideaway' - the first song he ever wrote — as one that still carries deep emotional resonance.
So what can Cape Town audiences expect when Collier finally takes the stage?
The honest answer: even he doesn’t fully know. “I don’t know what I’m going to play yet,” he says.
“The moments I’m most looking forward to are the ones where everything goes completely off script.”
There are hints of surprises - “a couple of special guests,” he teases. But beyond that, the night promises spontaneity, connection and musical exploration.
“I really have a strong feeling that there’ll be some musical moments here that have never happened before,” Collier says.
And in a city as rhythmically alive as Cape Town, that unpredictability might just be the magic ingredient for something unforgettable.
Collier will also be available for a Q&A and masterclass on March 26 at CTICC Auditorium 1 from 2.30pm. A free ticket secures you a spot.
More information about the festival is available at www.capetownjazzfest.com. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.