Ezra Collective

Few jazz groups carry their London origins as openly as Ezra Collective, a quintet whose roots lie in the Tomorrow's Warriors youth programme. Drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso, his brother TJ on bass, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi and tenor saxophonist James Mollison draw Afrobeat, calypso, reggae, hip-hop and soul into their playing, and they regularly work alongside fellow capital musicians including Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd. Their name nods to the prophet Ezra and his habit of studying the masters who came before him, a discipline the band wanted to bring to jazz.

Their 2019 debut, You Can't Steal My Joy, featured Jorja Smith and Loyle Carner, and the 2022 follow-up Where I'm Meant to Be, mixing instrumentals with lyrical collaborations, brought them the 2023 Mercury Music Prize, which made them the first jazz act to win in the award's 31-year history. In 2025 they took the Group of the Year prize at the BRIT Awards, the first jazz act to do so. Their most recent album, Here Because of Hope, arrived in September 2026 and debuted at number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.