It’s March 2020 and after kicking off a world tour and already playing to crowds in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Ezra Collective receive the dreaded Covid-call that they must pack their bags and return to London for a two week lockdown - “orders straight from man-like Boris himself”.

Fast forward a long two years later, the quintet are standing before a sold-out Village Underground as band-leader and drummer Femi Koleoso details this memory in an emotional speech advocating the post-pandemic mantra to “live for today" - one that rings true for everyone in the audience, an energetic crowd with an evident shared love for live music.

With emotions running high, the zeitgeist of living-in-the-moment was set for the night.
The band carried an infectious energy that undoubtedly immediately charmed the room. Without hesitation, Ezra Collective transformed the renovated warehouse into a vibrant jazz club with thrilling solos from keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones and tenor saxophonist James Mollison. 

Before the audience could relish in this too long, the jazz bar swiftly became a salsa spot with a colourful performance of their track ‘Sao Paolo’ - prefaced with orders from bassist TJ Koleoso for everyone to lose themselves to the music, “even the Radio-6-poshies”, which the venue was obviously brimming with.

The show was interrupted by an unexpected but highly-welcomed grime takeover with appearances from London-rapper Novelist performing ‘More Than A Hustler’ followed by an even MORE shocking appearance from JME. Inciting a roar of excited crowd screams, JME performed a mashup of ‘Quest for Coin II’, ‘Man Don’t Care’ and BBK classic 'Too Many Man’. Although slightly random, the chaos of the vibe-switches on stage really testifies to the success of the band as they pioneer the new wave of the vibrant UK jazz scene and push boundaries unapologetically.

Returning to the night’s original Jazz Club vibe, a ‘get down low’ command was issued by Femi until the band blasted out a climactic encore of ‘Juan Pablo’ to close the night which was met by a surge of final audience boogieing.

With a closing dedication from band trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi to the “best city in the world”. It’s clear that the band’s home-city of London is at the heart of everything they do, with their nods to UK Classics like DJ Luck & MC Neat’s A Little Bit of Luck and with shoutouts to crowd members they knew from school, church and even from the youth jazz programme where the band first met Tomorrow’s Warrior - run by bassist and all-around British jazz legend Gary Crosby.

Throughout the night, there was an undoubtable sense of community in the room - “Radio-6-poshy” or not - unified by a love of London, fantastic live music and of course, living for today.

See photos of the night by Yasmin Cowan below: