London’s jazz musicians draw on England’s rich tapestry of African and Caribbean diasporas to fuse their lively dance music.
Farewell to childhood, welcome to adulthood! That’s roughly the approach the five members of Ezra Collective present their fourth album, arriving after a decade of celebration and accolades — Mercury Prize and Brit Award, among others.
The good news is that while the Koleoso brothers and the rest of the crew seem more affected than before by the world’s fluctuations, their music remains profoundly playful, free, and by no means shackled by an excess of seriousness or restraint. For them, jazz is a communal art, danceable, expansive, and cross-pollinated enough to plumb the night and carry bodies into the early morning.
A Sound Steeped in the Discography of Fela Kuti
Built around three monologues by actress Letitia Wright (seen in Black Mirror and Ready Player One), Here Because of Hope also aims to remind what Black British Music is: a sound born from the crossing of West African rhythms, Caribbean brass, and London’s soundsystems; a sound steeped in Fela Kuti’s discography that has over time woven itself into the capital’s best grime and dancehall nights.
From Blow Your Trumpet to Don’t Worry, via Sweet Echo, everything is here: dub basslines, trumpets setting the pace, and recurring motifs, probably with the aim of turning the listening of these seventeen tracks into a shared experience.
Here Because of Hope (Partisan Records/PIAS). Out on September 18.
