Ezra Collective

Ezra Collective came up the hard way and the right way, five kids from a free youth jazz program in London who turned band practice into a movement. Drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso drives the engine, with brother TJ Koleoso on bass, Joe Armon-Jones on keys, James Mollison on saxophone and Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet. Together they play jazz the way it was always meant to be played, loud, sweaty and built for the dancefloor, pulling Afrobeat, dub, grime and salsa into a sound that belongs entirely to them. In 2023 they made history as the first jazz act ever to win the Mercury Prize, taking the honour for Where I’m Meant To Be. A year later they won the BRIT Award for Group of the Year, a first for a UK jazz band. They have packed Wembley Arena, the Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and turned Glastonbury fields into block parties. Through it all they have kept one foot in the community halls where they started, championing the youth music programs that raised them. Their fourth album, Here Because of Hope, arrives September 18 on Partisan Records, tracing the journey of Black music across continents with guests including Leona Lewis, Pa Salieu and Lila Iké, plus narration from actress Letitia Wright. The live show remains the main event, a full-tilt celebration where horns blaze and nobody stands still.