Ezra Collective energise with powerhouse show at Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Eleven years ago, Ezra Collective made their debut performance on the Cheltenham Jazz Festival free stage, as young scions of Tomorrow’s Warriors (affectionately described by the band’s leader, drummer Femi Koleoso, as a “youth club”). On Sunday night they returned in triumph to headline at the Town Hall, in previous years the venue of choice for the world’s jazz aristocracy, from Hugh Masekela downwards. Without doubt the hottest ticket at this year’s festival, the Ezra gig sold out within hours.

Lit by spotlights, saxophonist James Mollison (pictured above) and trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi kicked off proceedings with a dramatic blast of horns from high balconies on either side of the hall, before TJ Koleoso rumbled in with his bass at the back of the stage. Eschewing the grand piano for the first half of the gig, Joe Armon-Jones used his keyboard to play the role of funky guitarist, while Femi battered his kit unmercifully. Salsa, samba, afrobeat - it all surged out of them in a seamless flow. Their live set is all about lifting the audience to a screaming pitch of excitement, so that when we are told to go low - literally crouching - we have no choice but to go low, only to spring back to our feet on cue.

Ezra haven’t forgotten where they came from: Femi urged the audience to support the young bands on this year’s free stage. And they reprised a tune they played at their own debut – Herbie Hancock’s ‘Eye of the Hurricane’ – an appropriate title. The show’s climax saw Mollison, Ogunjobi and TJ clamber over the crash barrier to parade down the centre of the hall, to the immense delight of the crowd. As one who witnessed the London debut of AC/DC in the late 1970s, I can say hand on heart that even those sweaty Australians were somewhat lacking in energy compared with this lot. Ezra have evolved into a phenomenon so extraordinary that even this cavernous Edwardian pile, with its soaring Corinthian columns and coved ceiling, could barely contain them.