Vanguards of the London jazz scene, five-piece instrumental group Ezra Collective have spent the past decade electrifying stages from Glastonbury to Wembley Arena with their high-energy antics. Making history in 2023 by becoming the first – and to date only – jazz act to win the Mercury prize, and going on to win best group at the Brit awards in 2025, the group have come to define an improvisatory sound that blends the jazz tradition with the infectious West African melodies and rhythms that bandleader Femi Koleoso and his brother, bassist TJ Koleoso, grew up with.
Formed in 2012 after meeting in the grassroots jazz workshop Tomorrow’s Warriors, the group spent their early years sneaking into jazz institutions such as London’s Ronnie Scott’s club to catch glimpses of elder greats like drummer Tony Allen, and began writing music that incorporated Allen’s afrobeat alongside their love of hip-hop and jazz standards. Their debut EP, Chapter 7, was released independently in 2016, and coincided with the arrival of a whole new scene of young players like saxophonist Nubya Garcia and drummer Moses Boyd, who did away with the stuffy traditionalism of jazz stereotypes to instead draw a newer, younger audience to the music.
