Video of the Day: Ezra Collective - NPR Tiny Desk Concert

London jazz band Ezra Collective performed material from the new album Where I'm Meant To Be live at NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

London 5-piece Ezra Collective are proving themselves as a harmonious tour de force. Their sound nods respectfully to a classic jazz footprint, celebrating the originators whilst also carving a path solely their own. They marry the delicate technicalities of jazz with afrobeat & hip hop, tied together by a sound that’s unmistakably London. The members of Ezra Collective — Femi Koleoso on drums, TJ Koleoso on bass, Joe Armon-Jones on keys, Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet and James Mollison on saxophone — met seven years ago at a jazz youth program called Tomorrow’s Warriors and formed the group soon after.

The band makes amazing jazz music and mixes it with a fusion of other genres like Afrobeat, hip-hop and grime. The London-based group was supposed to play this Tiny Desk concert in 2020, but then, as bandleader and phenom drummer Femi Koleoso put it, "the world collapsed." Here it is now, rockin' hard with the highest level of musicianship and technique.

Watch the video of Ezra Collective performing material from the new album Where I'm Meant To Be live at NPR Tiny Desk Concert:

Ezra Collective’s new era, a venture in discovered maturity and raised stakes, will be defined by the anticipated second album. Where I’m Meant To Be is a thumping celebration of life, an affirming elevation in the Ezra Collective’s winding hybrid sound and refined collective character. The songs marry cool confidence with bright energy. Full of call-and-response conversations between their ensemble parts, a natural product of years improvising together on-stage, the album - which also features Sampa The Great, Kojey Radical, Emile Sandé, Steve McQueen, and Nao - will light up sweaty dance floors and soundtrack dinner parties in equal measure.

Listen to Ezra Collective's brand new album Where I'm Meant To Be: