BBC Sound of 2025: Jazz stars Ezra Collective are runners-up

If you assume Ezra Collective's music is life-affirming, simply wait till you meet them in individual.

Hanging out within the BBC's Maida Vale studios, the band are heat and charming, the sort of people that welcome an ideal stranger like a long-lost cousin.

Bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso's smile lights up a room and his zest for all times comes by means of in his music.

“We're just trying to bring something positive and enjoyable to whoever will listen,” he says. “So anything that gets us in front of more people is always gratefully acknowledged.”

Today, meaning the distinction of being named runner-up within the BBC's Sound of 2025.

The annual survey, which has been operating since 2003, has pointed to everybody from 50 Cent and Adele to Ray and Dua Lipa for achievement.

Ezra Collective's inclusion on the record got here comparatively late of their profession. they already did received the mercury awardfor his or her second album Where I'm Meant to Be, and final November, they grew to become First jazz act to promote out Wembley Arena,

But in his opinion, the band continues to be a newcomer.

Kolasso remembers the extreme depth of his Wembley debut.

“Fifteen minutes before the show, I made the terrible mistake of reading the wall backstage,” he says.

“They put down the names of everyone who played there before us. So it was like, 'Okay, Beyoncé played here, and Jay-Z and Stormzy and Madonna… and now it's Ezra Collective's turn'.”

If he was intimidated, it didn't present. The quintet turns viewers participation into an artwork type, transferring out into the group and making followers a part of their group, virtually like a New Orleans parade.

Reviews had been enthusiastic, calling the present “Masterclass in Musicology“He's gone”each individual has a smile on their face,

As a result, Ezra Collective's name will be added to the Wembley Wall – but Koleosso wants it to have a completely different impact.

“Wouldn't or not it’s nice if, in 10 years' time, some band goes to be intimidated by Beyoncé and Madonna, after which they see our identify, they usually say, 'Oh yeah, they got here to our college to do one thing. The gathering – then we might be superb'?”.

Community and musical kinship are the cornerstone of Ezra Collective; It can be traced back to youth club Tomorrow's Warriors, where they first met in central London in 2012.

The charity provides training to musicians who cannot afford private tuition, with a particular focus on “folks and women from African migrant backgrounds, who are sometimes under-represented within the music business”.

“It's where I met my best friends,” says Koleosso, who is a keen supporter of youth clubs.

“Not to go too deep, however how do you repair home violence or the male suicide price? You train a 14-year-old boy the best way to cope with rejection, the best way to love folks, the best way to management anger, How to respect others.

“Youth clubs can help with this. By the time someone is 24, it's almost too late.”

When Koleso first toured Tomorrow's Warriors along with his brother TJ, he had already fashioned a decent rhythm part in his church band. Actually, Femi had been taking part in drums because the age of 4.

“Maybe I'm a little biased, but I think drums are the best instrument, because you can see what's going on,” he says.

“When I look at our horn section, I'm hearing thousands of notes, but I'm only seeing three valves. It doesn't make any sense. But with drums, you play them and they make sounds.

“I want the whole lot was that straightforward.”

Tomorrow's Warriors introduced Koleso to jazz, a genre he previously considered exclusive and inaccessible, and to his future bandmates James Mollison (sax), Ife Ogunjobi (keyboards) and Dylan Jones (trumpet).

Together, they tore the genre's rule book to shreds, fusing elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime, reggae, Latin, R&B, highlife and jazz to create a sound that was bursting with possibilities.

“We're a shuffle generation,” explains Colosso. “We listen to Beethoven and then right after that comes 50 Cent. It influences our approach to music: we love jazz but I also love salsa. So why not try to include it there?”

After playing their first show at Foyle's Bookshop, they released their debut EP, Chapter 7, in 2016, and a debut album, You Can't Steal My Joy, in 2019.

Then Covid hit.

“We were supposed to do a world tour, but shortly after arriving in New Zealand, we were told to go back to London because the world was collapsing,” says Koleosso.

Lockdown inspired their second album, but instead of introspection and despair, it's a highly energetic record, driven by the promise of reconnecting after the pandemic.

“What we found was that we had each other,” says Colleoso. “It felt like we were meant to be together, and we made as many tracks as possible that made that clear.”

When it received the Mercury Prize, a follow-up was already within the bag.

Dance, No-One's Watching was recorded over three days (“One Just Set Up”) at Abbey Road Studios, with the band nonetheless in a barely depleted state after a weekend on the Notting Hill Carnival.

The thought was to seize the thrill of their reside exhibits immediately on tape – with an viewers of household and buddies to stop them from getting caught up within the technicalities of recording.

“What you're hearing is absolutely real. We just played it and then listened to it and said, 'Yeah, let's put it on vinyl.'

This is why the album features a brief, aborted performance by Ajala, in which Koleosso instructs his bandmates to play louder on the next take.

“A lot of people think it's an act, but it was a very real moment,” he says. “I wanted the song to play, but it didn't, so we stopped and tried again.

“Those things are priceless, because they will never happen again.

“There are a lot of things in the world that don't seem real at all, but music shouldn't be one of them.”

Unlike its predecessor, the album is steeped in the real world. Themed on a night out in London, it celebrates the sacred power of dancing and losing yourself in music with other people.

There's even a song called N29, after the night bus Koleso uses to catch a night home in London.

Anyone who has ever braved one of those 3 a.m. trips home will recognize the song's mix of post-club excitement, random conversation, and a backdrop of potential violence.

Colleoso says his first experience of that frontier reality occurred after his high school prom.

He recalls, “Our school got one of those fancy little boats on the Thames and everyone paid their £20, which was an impressive night out for a state school from Enfield.”

“It was the peak of grime and funky house, so I'm having the time of my life, dancing on this boat in a suit… then I missed the last tube home.”

In the times before Google Maps, it took a while to locate the right bus. When he finally got on the boat, it was carnage.

“I grew up 10 years in that one trip, do you know what I mean?” He laughs. “I noticed Wow! For lots of life!”

His need to doc life in all its messy, fantastic glory is the core of the album.

“In 2022, we acquired the possibility to journey the entire world. We spent superb nights in New Orleans, on the colourful streets and a lot occurred that it's arduous to explain.

“And you'll think, 'How do I bring this feeling into a song? I want someone to get a glimpse of this in their flat in Edmonton.'

“Or you'll go to the temple in Lagos and be like, 'I need to convey the feeling of the temple to someone who lives in Cardiff.'”

Ezra Collective's ever-growing viewers exhibits that they’ve efficiently completed that mission.

But there's one one who might be stunned: Koleosso's A-level music trainer.

“It's the secret, I got a D in music,” he admitted.

“I used to be very embarrassed, as a result of it was tough to persuade my mother and father that it was okay to play music.

“But it tells you that assessments can decide a kind of intelligence, however they're not the whole lot.

“If there was a test to close the show, I think I would have done better than a D.”

Amen to that.