Sound Of 2025: Ezra Collective are 'keeping music real'
Ezra Collective cap an extraordinary year by being named runners-up in BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025.
Ezra Collective are a British jazz quintet composed of drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso, bassist TJ Koleoso, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, and tenor saxophonist James Mollison, who met at the jazz youth programme Tomorrow's Warriors and formed their group soon afterwards. The group fuses elements of afrobeat, calypso, reggae, hip-hop, soul and jazz, and frequently collaborates with fellow London-based jazz musicians such as Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd. They were the recipients of the 2023 Mercury Music Prize. Their 2024 single "God Gave Me Feet for Dancing" was chosen by Barack Obama for his list of 25 favourite songs of the year.
Ezra Collective cap an extraordinary year by being named runners-up in BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025.