Jazzopen: Jacob Collier

Seven-time Grammy winner Jacob Collier turns Stuttgart's Schlossplatz into his instrument for the night. Quincy Jones discovered him on YouTube and that origin matters here. The former North London bedroom producer opens with the intricate vocal harmonies of "Time Alone With You," dividing the square into sections to conduct thousands of stacked voices. When a downpour hits the open stage, audible on the microphones, he folds it straight into "Singin' in the Rain"before driving back into the spiraling groove of "Mi Corazón." Rain, crowd, square: for Collier, all of it is material. Microtonality, reharmonization, rhythmic complexity; none of it hardens into technique because none of it stops being alive.