'I THINK WE'RE getting a bit closer to reaching a point where UK jazz can achieve something great and it's not going to be a time where you single it out like, UK jazz has done this," reflects Ezra Collective's Femi Koleoso. "It's going to be Nubya Garcia has done something and it was sick. Or look at Yussef Dayes winning the Ivor Novello for Best Album. That didn't feel like it was all about jazz. It just felt like a moment where a great musician had won something."
It's the sunniest of outlooks from the 29-year-old Londoner, who has more reason than most to be positive. Cast your mind back to September last year and you might just remember the euphoric moment when Koleoso and his bandmates - brother and bassist TJ, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, and saxophonist James Mollison-made history by becoming the first jazz group to win the Mercury Prize.
For years before, bands like Ezra Collective had always experienced a tricky relationship with the Mercury Prize. The genre would be represented in the nominations but were frequently branded the "token jazz act" in lazy write-ups, with the act always falling short of victory. It's of little wonder, then, that the group fell to the floor when it was announced that they'd scooped the most prestigious prize in British music with their 2022 album Where I'm Meant to Be.
"We all ended up on the floor because we were so sure that someone else would have been told by that point," recalls Koleoso. "It was a very, very special moment, but the right thing to do immediately was to deflect it in all the directions that had led us to that point. Be it youth clubs, or even those so-called token jazz nominations that didn't win before us."
This story is from the October/November 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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This story is from the October/November 2024 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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