A transcript from Charlie Mace's interview with Femi Koleoso on City Jazz Radio.
Alright Femi, it's great to have you on the show finally, it's a real privilege to get you onto City Jazz Radio. It's been a long time coming.
Yo, what's up City Jazz? This is Femi Koleoso from the Ezra Collective and it's a real honour to be here chatting to you, do you know what I'm saying?
Thanks! Well Femi, I'm just going to get straight into it and start asking you some questions. The first of which is that I've been following the Ezra Collective since, well, the release of You Can't Steal My Joy, and since then Ezra Collective's had such a lucrative career. I was wondering, since that release, what have been your personal highlights of your time with the Ezra Collective?
So, first of all, personal highlights of Ezra Collective's career. I think, I mean, we've achieved so many beautiful things. I think, you know, the Mercury Prize, of course, was a very special highlight but even if you go back in time, the first time we got to play a headline show at Ronnie Scott's really meant a lot to us. The very, very first time we ever played Glastonbury Festival, I'm talking not the West Holt stage but when we were at the West Holt stage bar, you know, there wasn't really anyone there but that was a really special moment for us.
You know, so I feel like it's easy to kind of draw your eyes straight to the big things but I feel like all of the moments where we've just aimed for something and achieved it have meant a lot. So, even this year, we played in Nigeria, the continent of Africa, for the first time. That meant a lot to us.
So, yeah, that's what I would say are some of the career highlights that we've had so far.
That's great. You guys have had a really rich career with the Ezra Collective.
So, my next question is, what sort of music do you like listening to? What's your favourite music? I know you have the Joyful Vibrations playlist out every now and then but I'm wanting to know what music and genres you listen to when you're not playing jazz.
So, yeah, some of my favourite music to listen to, I guess for me, I'm always trying to find things I've not heard before and kind of mix that with the things that I've grown up loving and listening to. So, yeah, I make a playlist on Spotify every week, Joyful Vibrations playlist, which is just like a little window into some of my favourite things.
But I'm a lover of genres, you know. So, from 90s hip hop to Afro-Cuban music, from 70s highlife Nigerian music to Afrobeat and all the connotations in that, you know. Just to give some more specific names; I'm a deep lover of John Coltrane's music; I'm a deep lover of Prince; I'm a deep lover of Ella Fitzgerald; I'm a great, deep lover of reggae and dub music.
That's probably the music and art form that I watch live the most.
Frequently, I'll go to Channel One Sound System every opportunity I get and listen to that. So, those are the sounds of Danny Redd, Bob Marley, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo etc.
So, it's quite an expansive listening palette, but I guess it's kind of necessary when you're always trying to find as much inspiration wherever you can. So, right now on the Joyful Vibrations playlist, I've got some Miss Dynamite. I'm listening to Sade, D'Angelo, of course, there's some Susan Codigan, like reggae classic Sister Nancy, Marcus Valle, like Brazilian funk kind of legend and hero.
And then it kind of goes into like some Bolla Johnson, some highlife stuff with Pat Thomas from Ghana. Anne-Marie, one thing, you know, amazing sample from The Meters. So, that's very much, you know, Ari Lennox, R&B singer, killing it right now. Robert Mitchell, UK jazz legend from back in the day. Do you know what I'm saying?
So, just a really expansive list of things and it's always changing and evolving.
Cheers for that, I'll make sure all of my listeners go and check out the Joyful Vibrations playlist. I've recommended it to them before, but they'll definitely go and listen now. And my next question is a bit more of a general one for you, which is just what's next for the Ezra Collective?
Yeah, man, what's next for the Ezra Collective? I guess what's next is we just continue to play shows that we're proud of. We continue to make music that we're proud of. But I think one of the things deeply on my mind and forefront of our mind collectively is we'd just love to spend more time in schools, in universities, in youth clubs, and just really spend more time teaching and giving away rather than seeing what we can gain, you know? So, I'm hoping the beginning of next year we can kind of start that journey of spending more time in schools, doing assemblies, teaching more one-on-one drum lessons and other instrument lessons, whilst also spending a lot of time in the studio and seeing what music we can put out. But I'm sure and I hope we'll get some music out next year.
What that looks like, I don't know, but I do hope so.
That's great for me personally as an avid Ezra Collective fan and also great for my listeners- you know, we play you guys a lot on the show and it'd be great to have some new music out for us to listen to.
And so, Femi, my last question for this interview is that here at City Jazz, you know, we're a student-run jazz radio show promoting jazz to young people and I think they would really appreciate your input about what you love most about jazz and why my listeners, students and young people should also listen to jazz.
What do I love most about jazz? I love its diversity. You know, I love that you can use the word jazz to describe Bill Evans, but you can also use the word jazz to describe Snarky Puppy. You know, I love that the diversity makes it so inclusive, you know, from the three-minute Charlie Parker record to the 27-minute John Coltrane solo, you know, and everything that encapsulates.
I love that you can almost make your own narrative out of it. It's a very beautiful and free art form. And yeah, man, and more than anything, it just makes me smile and feel good which is what music's all about, really. We run the risk of over-intellectualizing these things, but that's really what it's about, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, that's what I'd say to that. Keep listening to jazz, you get me?
Yeah, no, I really do agree. There are so many facets to jazz and that's what we're exploring here at City Jazz. It's been a pleasure having you on, Femi. (7:07) Thanks so much for coming on City Jazz Radio.
It's been great.
City Jazz, it's been a real honour to be here.
Cheers,
Listen to the whole episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KucMF2f3BYRW0muLlxhM1?si=54df5fdc68654654#
Image Credit:
Femi Koleoso Instagram Page
Really interesting! :)