A triumphant show from Ezra Collective at London’s Royal Albert Hall — review

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This was the gig that every band dreams of playing, a triumphant homecoming in a totemic venue in front of a loudly appreciative audience. The reason for the triumph was Ezra Collective winning the Mercury Prize in September, the first jazz act to do so since the award began in 1992. It gave the evening the feel of a victory lap — especially when the Londoners vaulted the fourth wall and made a foray into the audience with their instruments.

The occasion was the Pitchfork Music Festival, a series of concerts across London organised by the eponymous US music website. The venue was the Royal Albert Hall. Ezra Collective had played there once before, during a charity gig in 2013 after they were crowned best jazz ensemble at a national youth music awards. Their drummer-leader Femi Koleoso marvelled at their return as headliners during a promenade with microphone in hand. He isn’t the sort of sticksman who likes to stay rooted to his stool.

“We’re on a mission to bring joy to this building,” he proselytised at one point. Missionaries are travellers with a message, which is how Ezra Collective approach jazz. The travelling involves a fusion sound designed to get feet moving with funk, Latin music, Afrobeat, dub reggae and hip-hop. The message is an epiphanic one of being yourself in the fullness of the moment. It owes something to Koleoso’s churchgoing, which he mentioned during a passage of sermonising — but more so the carnival groove that he and his bandmates lock into when in full flow.

They opened with the dubby “Ego Killah” from their Mercury-winning album Where I’m Meant to Be. Koleoso occupied a platform with Joe Armon-Jones who played grand piano and electric keys, sometimes simultaneously. The drummer’s brother TJ Koleoso was on bass, moving between back and frontline. Trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi and tenor saxophonist James Mollison were in the foreground playing clarion-call riffs.

The two-hour set included guest appearances from three singers (Emeli Sandé, Nao, Zara McFarlane) and three rappers (Kojey Radical, Loyle Carner, JME). Their presence, performing songs from across the band’s recording career, added to the sense of occasion, although from where I was placed the vocal mix seemed muddy. The band, however, sounded unstoppable.

Koleoso set the tone at the drum kit. He was fast and vigorous without ever losing control, pushing things to the limit but not beyond. A pulsating passage of interplay with responsive keyboardist Armon-Jones during a reworking of Fela Kuti’s “Lady” was punctuated by the drummer jumping from his seat like a jack-in-the-box. His brother on bass deftly marshalled the rhythmic energy in their crossover jazz. Ogunjobi and Mollison played like a tight brass section in a funk or Afrobeat revue, occasionally breaking apart for solos.

There’s a communitarian ethos in their music, a worthy aim that they make sound electrifying rather than earnest. It came across during their trip into the audience, and also when dancers and brass players from youth ensemble Kinetika Bloco crammed on to the stage to perform “Juan Pablo” with them. The thick of the action at an Ezra Collective gig encompasses more than the band themselves.

★★★★☆

ezracollective.com