top of page
bck grnd.png
Search

Ezra Collective X Radio 6 Music Festival, 02 Victoria Warehouse, 27th March, 2025

  • Writer: Lilly Tarmey
    Lilly Tarmey
  • Apr 3
  • 2 min read

What. A. SHOW.


After hearing only the highest adulations by those describing the ethereal experience of catching London’s Ezra Collective in the flesh, my expectations were pretty hefty. Although, given my lifelong refrain from appreciating jazz, I still had my reservations.





It will come as no surprise that I’m a words kind of girl, and it’s always the lyrics of a song that I latch myself onto, especially at a concert. So when my pre-gig ritual couldn’t consist of relentlessly reading the band’s lyrics as poetic prose, I naturally capped my anticipated excitement for the show, because surely no one’s getting that gassed over brass?


I went to a perfectly bog-standard, suburban secondary school in the 2010s. Therefore, I was inevitably scarred by the insufferable ear-drum-scraping sonics of the brass band. In hindsight, carting around my ukulele in a JD drawstring was social suicide, so God only knows how those purple-faced teenage trombone shooters ever mentally recovered. This insight into my pre-teen musical exposure contextualises my disdain for wind and brass instruments and all those who attempted to use them to create a melody.


If someone had told me as little as a year ago that a brass-led, instrumental jazz performance would have enthralled every fibre of my being, both in the moment and for the days that followed, I’d have told them where to go.


The show opened with energy that the collective managed to maintain until the final flourish. Their high-impact melodies, supported by rambunctious rhythms that put Whiplash to shame, made for superb body-shaking material.


My doubts about the group’s lack of words within their work were more than made up for by Femi’s halftime tooting. A speech synonymous with that at the BRIT awards a month prior, Ezra’s drummer-boy-turned-spokesman vocalised his passion for youth music organisations, shouting about the impact a trumpet can have on a kid's life. Demonstrating how music can help to mitigate anti-social issues in his powerful proclamation, the collective acknowledged that, whilst words have their place, actions can speak louder. They then proceeded to welcome Kinteka Bloco’s kids to the stage, showing in real time the lives that a single youth organisation is helping to shape. If this message wasn’t clear enough, the musicians slinked off stage, leaving the entertainment to the youth centre. Taking their trumpets to the punters, Ezra Collective serenaded the audience, parading their performance down a make-shift runway, with one member having to be found via torchlight as he and his instrument got enveloped by the energy of the crowds of Victoria Warehouse.


With the finale featuring vocals from a talented member of the Kinteka community, the powerful unity of the folks on stage was effortlessly mirrored by the kinetic crowd. With the final hips shaken and the toes tapped the night was drawn to a close, with the extended collective spilling out onto the quays. An evening I’m sure to remember as the first time I actively enjoyed jazz. Hopefully the first of many.

 
 
 

Comments


bottom of page