Twenty-three-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. 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. “That’s how I hear. There has to be a balance.” 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 he 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.” He has released three albums to date, I am (11) – Beyond (Division 81 Records, 2022), Return of the Black Emperor (JAZZ, 2018), and Cosmic Transitions (JAZZ, 2021). The Critics Speak: “Still in his early 20s, Collier is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, though he focuses on saxophones.” – Leor Galil, Chicago Reader “5 stars for Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few: Cosmic Transitions (Jazz, 2021). This offering is the third from the Chicago-based saxophonist, who at the age of 23 has transcended the realm of prodigy. It is not his age that shocks. It is what he’s playing.” – Joshua Myers, Downbeat Magazine “A weighty LP featuring his quartet, the Chosen Few. He has established himself as an heir apparent to both the Chicago lineage and the post-Coltrane sax tradition” – Giovanni Russonello, New York Times.