Photo: Press
Seeing boys you grew up with take the stage at one of London’s best jazz clubs is always going to be a pleasing experience. Seeing them then have the whole club on their feet, moving to Fela Kuti, is just downright unbelievable, and one of those experiences you have to rub your eyes and look again at. But that’s very much the spirit of the new age jazz scene sweeping the UK at the minute. It challenges expectations, defies the norms that jazz is so weighed down in.
At the heart of this contemporary thinking, is a challenge for jazz to be less conformist, less traditional, to be inspired by the movements around it, to pick up on threads of R&B, hip-hop, and soul, and reflect the sound and spirit of their communities. It’s something that for the five players of Ezra Collective is a motto and a founding ethos.
Making their debut at Ronnie Scott’s, Ezra Collective are just one of a number of bands whose ambition is to change the model for what jazz looks like. Whilst the audience might be a parade of people clad in their Sunday best, fine dresses, and dinner jackets, for the band the dress code is black tracksuit bottoms. While half the audience might be well into the forties, the other half are at Ronnie Scott’s for the first time, watching their friends play.
“I think this is the first we’ve even played zone one, so we’re gassed,” says the band’s drummer, Femi Koleoso, as they take the stage. It’s this light-hearted nature to how they treat the very spirit of their playing that’s refreshing. But never at any moment does it sacrifice the music itself.
Tonight’s set-list is a mix of tracks from their debut EP, Chapter 7, released independently online. Put into perspective, it’s quite magnificent to see a band with just a debut EP and a series of low-profile shows alongside rappers Pharoahe Monch and TY, take to a space like Ronnie Scott’s so comfortably.
The five piece look as casual on stage as they have done playing anywhere. For Femi, who jokes with the audience throughout, there’s not a crack of fear in his voice. For pianist Joe, even the shows quietest moment where he plays solo, alone to the room on piano is untainted by fear.
The show is evidently a touching experience for the band and the audience alike, with both Joe Armon Jones and Boy Better Know member JME, sharing exchanges of love over twitter afterwards.
The set goes on for just over an hour, and climaxes with a cover of Fela Kuti’s ‘Zombie’. It’s the finest moment of the show, and sees the audience shouting back Kuti’s lyrics, gun fingers in the air. The band end, jump from the stage and are met with hugs from their friends.
On the walls of Ronnie Scott’s are some of the clubs most historic moments. Sets by Chet Baker and Buddy Rich here are some of the most iconic ever played in London, and it’s pleasing to think one day this generation of jazz musicians might find themselves a space on this wall. Certainly by the calibre and the response to tonight’s show, there’s a hope of more regular bookings here for Ezra Collective. But that’s probably quite sad news for members of their South London fan-base, who will remember the days they saw Ezra dip in and out of sleazy backstreet pubs in Deptford and Lewisham.
