Ezra Collective
It’s the last few days of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival and there’s a mad scramble to soak up the festival before it disappears for another year. The Spiegeltent area was packed at 10pm on Friday night; locals enjoying the warm night and cool booze from the outdoor bar.
To supplement the festival vibes, award-winning band Ezra Collective were playing inside the Spiegeltent. Since winning the Yamaha Jazz Experience Competition in 2012, Ezra Collective have been storming the UK jazz scene with their blend of, afrobeats, reggae, hip hop and of course, jazz. On Friday, they took Norwich, a place not unfamiliar with the London-based collective. “I’ve been to Norfolk before, for Bible camp,” drummer Femi Koleoso told us, face lighting up after a pocket of gig-goers respond. “Yes, Newday! Big up Newday! We’ll talk later…”
After warming the crowd with banter and introductions, Koleoso led the Collective into a truly memorable performance. The gig centred around the band’s debut EP, Chapter 7. Songs took winding paths through skittering jazz grooves, odd-metre funk and bluesy melodys. Open-ended structures kept things exciting – just when you’d figured out how to dance, the Collective changed the up the tempo. Solos revealed the virtuosic skill of the musicians- Femi’s brother TJ on bass (bass face included), Joe Armon Jones on piano, James Mollison on tenor and Dylan Jones on trumpet.
The Collective seduced the crowd with tributes to the greats, including Willie Jones, Tribe Called Quest and finally, Fela Kuti. A Kuti medley (mashed up with drops and breakdowns) and an encore of Zombie has the Spiegeltent busting some serious moves.
Mid-performance, Femi told us that despite what was going on in our lives, he wanted to make us smile at least once tonight. I certainly had a stupid grin plastered on my face more than once, and I suspect most of the crowd did too. Practically mobbed as they manned the merch table post-performance, Ezra Collective gave the crowd a lot of feels. Apparently Norfolk has a great bible camp, but our jazz scene could do with some work. Let’s hope Femi and the crew school us in new gen jazz again soon.
