This time next week, London will have elected its Mayor for the next four years. But despite the outcome being somewhat predictable, Sadiq Khan had better keep an eye on a surprising last-minute entry to the race. ‘Maybe I will run for Mayor of London,’ contemplates Femi Koleoso, drummer of the UK’s most in-demand jazz quintet, Ezra Collective. ‘I can’t afford the Tube. Tap, tap, tap, what do you mean £17!? Under-18s should travel for free so they get to whatever school or youth club they wanna get to. And I’d get rid of peak times. You’re just punishing all the people who have got to get to work at 9am.’
That’s not all on Femi’s manifesto. ‘I would make London noisy again. I would disregard any noise complaint made to an establishment that was there before you lived there. If you chose to live next to Fabric [nightclub], that’s on you.’ He’d also scrap the 20mph speed limit in Islington and bid for the World Cup: ‘It’d be good for morale.’
Football is on the group’s collective mind for two reasons. The first, they’re itching to get home to catch the Arsenal game. And second, they’ve just announced they’ll be headlining Wembley. Not (yet) the stadium but the arena, and later this year Ezra Collective will make history as the first-ever UK jazz act to headline the venue. ‘That’s so rock ’n’ roll, innit?’ Femi grins.
The six of us are sitting at a roundtable — literally — and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much male attention at one time. Femi, alongside younger brother and bassist TJ Koleoso, saxophonist James Mollison, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi and keys player Joe Armon-Jones, are discussing their imminent world tour: ‘You’re looking at buildings that are associated with rappers and rock stars and playing that same brand of jazz music that we were playing as teenagers. I couldn’t be more excited,’ says Femi.
Their certain brand of jazz is blended with blazing hot flavours of Afrobeat, dancehall, calypso, reggae and hip hop. In their last album, Where I’m Meant to Be, their rare, sonic sweet spot was noticed worldwide and to critical acclaim. It’s rumoured that the etymology of ‘jazz’ comes from a 19th-century slang term for ‘energy’, and never is a room more energetic than when Ezra Collective perform.
Little did they know that when they released their album 18 months ago that it would change their lives, make them the first jazz act to win the Mercury Prize and take them on a knackering-yet-wonderful whirlwind that doesn’t seem to be slowing. They were the underdogs of the 2023 Mercury Prize Award, but like an Arsenal match, they explain, you have to assume that you won’t win. ‘I put money on us winning,’ says James, ‘but more to have faith in ourselves, not because I thought we’d win. The odds were so stacked against us.’
Facing the likes of Raye, Loyle Carner and Arctic Monkeys, did the rest of the band place bets? ‘I thought Olivia Dean was going to win,’ says TJ. ‘It was hard not to look at Raye and her story and her narrative and not think that she could win,’ says Femi, while James thought Jessie Ware had it in the bag.‘Although we were the first jazz act to win the Mercury Prize, we weren’t the first jazz act to deserve to win the Mercury Prize,’ Femi reminds the room. So why now is the genre being given the flowers it deserves? ‘There was a barrier to jazz music in the way it was perceived by the general population. It was stereotyped into an elitist, intellectual space and it took some smashing down to change that. We’re standing on the bricks of every single show a UK jazz act has done. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a village to raise a band as well.’
It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a village to raise a band as well
The village that raised this band was the Camden youth club and jazz programme, Tomorrow’s Warriors, founded by music manager/producer Janine Irons and double-bassist Gary Crosby. All London-born and raised with the exception of Joe, from Oxfordshire, who jokes that he feels like an outsider constantly — ‘He uses Google Maps to get home!’ — the five met at the youth club in their late teens and have never looked back.With over a decade under their belt, they must bicker at times? ‘I once heard someone say: “The essence of family is loving someone you don’t always like” — we’ve morphed into that place. We’re not going to agree on everything,’ says TJ. ‘Bands are made great by disagreements,’ adds Femi. ‘If we didn’t disagree, we’d be solo artists.’
One thing they did agree on was the necessity to carve out their own space within the London scene. ‘As a teenager I was going to Ronnie Scott’s and other places like that and there was definitely an imposter syndrome because a lot of the time someone who looked, dressed or sounded like me wasn’t represented on that stage. Particularly in that specific space [Ronnie Scott’s] and in those types of jazz clubs, it could sometimes feel like that [inaccessible]. We ended up finding a lot of our own corners of London to play in,’ says Femi.
Corners that they will continue to revisit for the rest of their lives are the capital’s youth groups. And whenever they can, they’ll bring the next generation along for the ride. ‘It’s like, yeah you can bring 30 kids on stage, but you’re going to lose a fortune if you do that. It’s an uncomfortable decision but it was the right thing to do. That’s what we believe in.’
Everything that they do is about giving back to the community that raised them. In 2023 they donated a portion of their gig fees to youth organisations. They attribute their success — and the elegance they have with their instruments — to great teaching, and it is for exactly that reason that they’re taking on the responsibility themselves. ‘Here we are. Talking about playing at Wembley, doing a fancy photo shoot. Looking mad cool. But, one day, and this may break some people’s hearts: no one will care about Ezra Collective. One day we’re not going to be the person that you ask to be on ES Magazine. But that’s okay. Because that “one day” means there’s space for someone else. What lasts forever is what you gave to people when you had that platform.’
One day we’re not going to be the person that you ask to be on ES Magazine
Femi’s sentiment is particularly poignant now, in the wake of severe funding cuts to youth services and constant attacks on the arts. It’s enough to have made Ezra Collective lose all hope in the Government. ‘I’m not lookingto any of these politicians — don’t ask me left, right — none of them aregonna be the saviour of our communities,’ says TJ. ‘The fact that I live nextdoor to someone who is at school right now and wants to become a musicianmeans that I have a responsibility myself to try and help that person.’
He continues. ‘Every general election it’s the same thing. It’s people looking at manifestos and thinking, “Okay, they’re promising to do X,Y, Z,” and then being shocked when they don’t follow through on their promises!? Like yo, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. We’ve been through enough.’
Speaking of manifestos, Femi wants to add to his mayoral pledge. Last year, we lost a devastating total of 125 grassroots music venues across the UK. ‘I have the answer,’ he says, clapping his hands together confidently. ‘Can you imagine if someone said they wanted to build a flat in Hyde Park? Westminster Council would probably kick you out of the country for suggesting something so mad. But that’s how you protect things. We need the same attitude that we have to parks to the other buildings in our city.
‘We say this thing is Grade five-listed, and so you can’t smash it down. But why can’t we list what it was built for. Why can’t we say this building is Grade eight-listed for dancing? This year it’s gonna be called Bar Salsa, next year it’s gonna be a techno club, but it will always be for dancing. Charlie Wrights in Hoxton was a jazz club. It was sold and turned into flats immediately. It was worth a lot more to Hackney Council as flats than it was as a jazz club. However, being a jazz club was good for the soul of the community.’
On the subject of things that should have been left alone, how do Ezra Collective feel about Back to Black, the new Amy Winehouse biopic based on the jazz icon’s lyrics? ‘I just think when someone’s passed away: let them sleep, let them rest. It’s a horrific thing to do to keep resurrecting them in that way,’ says Joe. ‘I don’t need to see the film, I saw it in real life,’ says Femi, before his younger brother jumps in — ‘When it comes to biopics you have to ask, are the family involved? Are the right people involved? How was this film made? With the Tupac biopic the wrong people were clearly involved, that was a disaster,’ says TJ.
I just think when someone’s passed away: let them sleep, let them rest. It’s a horrific thing to do to keep resurrecting them in that way
Do they see an Ezra Collective biopic in their future? Grammys, stadiums, No 1 albums? They once said that winning the Mercury Prize was far from their final goal. So how do they envision their highest peak? ‘Winning it twice!’ laughs Femi. ‘It’s only when we have a greatest hits album that we’ll be able to look back and pinpoint, “That was the top of the mountain,”’ says TJ, as Joe cuts in: ‘But it’s all over when you get to the top of the mountain, then it’s only back down again.’ For now, Ezra Collective are enjoying the climb.
