Ezra Collective Stay Hopeful

I was stunned when Ezra Collective drummer Femi Koleoso told me he’s just 31 years old. (He’ll be 32 in October.) I’ve been listening to him for a decade, since the group’s 2016 debut EP, Chapter 7, and two albums he played on the following year, Nubya Garcia’s Nubya’s 5ive and Camilla George’s Isang. The bassist on those latter two releases was Daniel Casimir, but in Ezra Collective, Koleoso is joined by his brother TJ, as well as keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi (who replaced Dylan Jones on 2022’s Where I’m Meant To Be), and saxophonist James Mollison.