Sounds of Joy, Part 2: Reflections on Ezra Collective

Live at the BBC 6 Music Festival, March 2025

Ezra Collective at the Royal Albert Hall, 7th November 2023 (photo by Raph_PH, Creative Commons)

I apologise for the infrequency of these articles in recent months - I’m currently studying for a Master’s degree, and time is not my friend! - T.E.

The cities of Sheffield and Manchester are only an hour apart but could not be more different. Sheffield is like giant basin, a city of peaks and valleys surrounded by hills. The centre of Sheffield is a curious mixture of pristine new buildings – apartments, student accommodation, the glorious Cambridge Street Collective food court – and the quality Victorian brickwork and occasional cobbled streets that remain from its days as an industrial powerhouse. There’s no mistaking that Sheffield is a city, but it somehow feels small and welcoming. By comparison, Manchester can be a little overwhelming. The buildings are taller, the streets more concentrated with people, and the flow of trams and traffic denser.

I had occasion to compare the two after taking a trip from Sheffield to Manchester to see none other than Ezra Collective, one of London’s premier afrobeat/jazz bands, perform for the BBC 6 Music Festival. Ezra – comprised of brothers Femi and TJ Koleoso (drums and bass) plus Ife Ogunjobi (trumpet), James Mollison (tenor sax) and Joe Armon-Jones (keyboards) – are part of the golden generation of London jazz musicians that were commemorated on the 2018 album We Out Here from Brownswood Recordings, which also featured future stars like Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross, Moses Boyd, Shabaka Hutchings, and Kokoroko.

I’m the same age as these performers, and I remember just how completely off the radar jazz music was for young people in the ‘90s and 2000s. I don’t recall being exposed to it at all, or knowing anyone that was into it. Thanks to these performers, however, that is no longer the case: the jazz music they make is vibrant, exciting and accessible.

Despite that, it wasn’t my appreciation for the London jazz scene that was taking me to see Ezra Collective this evening. Joining Ezra onstage for part of the performance would be youth music group Kinetica Bloco, which blends brass, woodwind, steel pans and percussion played by young people mainly (but not all) from South London. One of those young people is my youngest sister, which was the reason for my presence.

Kinetica Bloco Summer Showcase at the Southbank Centre, August 2024 (photo by the author)

Femi and Ife both attended Bloco, and Ezra Collective itself came together via Tomorrow’s Warriors, another youth music group that Bloco members often progress through. Since then ‘the EZ’ has gone from strength to strength: they won the Mercury Music Prize in 2023, and were named “Group of the Year” at the 2025 Brit Awards. Throughout all of this, they have remained outspoken supporters of youth groups, knowing firsthand the difference they can make for young people. I didn’t know any of this when I arrived at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse – but I was soon to be made aware.

TJ Koleoso at the Royal Albert Hall, 7th November 2023 (Photo by Raph_PH, Creative Commons)

The Victoria Warehouse is in an out-of-the-way industrial area on the edge of Manchester’s ‘Media City’ district. It’s a small venue, a far cry from the arenas that Ezra are able to command on their regular tour dates. First up was a DJ set by Jamz Supernova, followed by opening act Fat Dog. Fat Dog were very loud, with an unusual lineup of instruments (including saxophone and violin) blending into a solid wall of noise. It was intense – what was needed after that was something to sooth the ears and the soul. Enter ‘the EZ’.

James Mollison at the Royal Albert Hall, 7th November 2023 (Photo by Raph_PH, Creative Commons)

Ezra Collective are a striking visual proposition. Occupying opposite ends of the stage are saxophonist James and trumpeter Ife, who on this night are both clad in shades and SWAT team-style body armour, because why not. Occasionally they march towards each other and swap places, the streams of music from their horns becoming visible and leaving a colourful trail. Between them is TJ, who never stops moving at any point, shuffling around the stage with shoulders raised and his bass hoisted to up to his chest. Keyboardist Joe is stage left, a professor deeply engaged in sonic experimentation. At the back of the stage, barricaded behind his drumkit, is Femi, the bandleader, the energy source of this musical machine. Every part that makes up Ezra Collective is crucial, but I get the sense that they are communicating something that is being channelled through Femi from someplace else.

In another life, Femi would have made a fine preacher. Every so often he rises from the drum stool, microphone in hand, to sermonize on the subjects of music and joy. We’re not just an audience, he says, we’re family, we’re part of what’s happening, and it couldn’t happen without us. There is no audience, there is no band, we are all members of the Ezra Collective.

Femi speaks about the importance of youth clubs, so often the key to a young person finding community and purpose, yet so often underfunded to the point of nonexistence. Not everyone is cut out to be a crusader, but Femi has willingly taken on that responsibility. He is a hero.

Femi Koleoso at the Royal Albert Hall, 7th November 2023 (photo by Raph_PH, Creative Commons)

To illustrate his point, the members of Kinetica Bloco are invited onstage. Horns, drums, dancers, but most of all: joy. By this point the Victoria Warehouse has become a living room – this isn’t a gig, it’s a house party, and no one here is a stranger. My favourite song they played was ‘Everybody’, which adapts an old Nigerian gospel melody to create something sublime.

Ife Ogunjobi at the Royal Albert Hall, 7th November 2023 (photo by Raph_PH, Creative Commons)

Femi also talks about the idea of ‘impermanence’. Ezra Collective may be riding the crest of a wave right now, he says, but that moment will pass, and they will be forced to examine what it was all for, what they achieved. On this evidence, they will leave a legacy of spreading joy, fighting for young people’s rights to access the arts, and encouraging everyone everywhere to dance like no one’s watching.