W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

London jazz invaded New York City on Sunday evening as Ezra Collective and Celeste made their way across the pond to dazzle the sun drenched, sweat soaked fans that braved the sweltering heat to visit Rumsey Playfield for the latest installment of Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage (in association with The Blue Note Jazz Festival).

Ezra Collective, has been at the forefront of the London jazz scene ever since the band got together just about 12 years ago when drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso, bassist TJ Koleoso, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, trumpeter Dylan Jones (since replaced by Ife Ogunjobi), and tenor saxophonist James Mollison first met while still attending high school.

Those of us who gathered at the playfield early were treated to a wonderful DJ set of hip hop, R&B and disco vibes from Da Chick.  Warming things up might not have been a requirement in a literal sen and se, with temps well into the 90’s combined with a pea soup-like humidity level but nonetheless, warming things up is exactly what Da Chick accomplished from the figurative standpoint.

Celeste took the stage promptly at 6 PM accompanied by the other five members of her sextet.  This being their first American gig ever, Celeste was visibly humbled by the reaction from and knowledge of her material from the most attentive audience.  To these ears, Celeste, herself has a vocal style very reminiscent of the late great Amy Winehouse.  She and her understated band ended up putting forth a splendid set of sultry R&B infused jazz.

Ezra Collective came on and jumped right into a brief funk inspired “Chris and Jane” from the 2019 LP, You Can’t Steal My Joy  before Femi Koleoso took off on what would turn out to be the first of 3 or 4 rap/speech/monologues of the evening.  

As stated previously Ezra Collective have been mainstays in the South London Jazz scene for the better part of the last decade.  They, along with such modern day jazz luminaries as Shabaka Huchings (Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, Shabaka & The Ancestors), Tomorrow’s Warriors, Nubya Garcia, MIles Boyd, Kokoroko and Nerija to name a few have spearheaded a movement in jazz which incorporates straight up post bop jazz with hip hop, fusion, afro-funk, caribbean rhythms such as soca, calypso, reggae and salsa along with a bit of 80’s style acid jazz.  

What we get, as a result, (specifically) from Ezra Collective is a broad based gumbo of sound.  This being my first EC show, I can’t attest if this is normal for their sets but Sunday evening’s performance was spilt up into four distinct sections, each one primarily introduced and explained by one of Femi’s entertaining and informative soliloquies.   After the first section of straight up funk infused jazz came the second act which was a tribute to the band’s hero, Fela.  With the temperature barely dropping a single degree as the sun set just beyond stage right, Koleoso requested for all the NIgerians in the crowd to make some noise and there was a discernible thunder which erupted from the crowd, but nothing compared to the rumble made when he yelled that tonight everyone was from Lagos.  The band would then dive right into a medley of afro-funk which would have made Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti proud.  Of particular note during this segment of the night was an incredibly smoking hot and funky version of “Ajala” a non LP single which the band released earlier in the year.

Following this segment came what I will call the “JOY” portion of the show.  Fema would go off on a rant stating how being happy and/or sad are fleeting emotions.  They come and they go.  One minute you can be happy and shortly thereafter sadness can overtake you for any given reason.  But the joy one holds and feels in their heart is always there.  There’s nothing fleeting about joy.  From here the band charged their way through the title track of the aforementioned, “You Can’t Steal My Joy”.  It would be midway through this portion of the set that bassist TJ Koleoso, trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, and tenor saxophonist James Mollison would disappear from the stage only to reappear in the middle of the crowd for a rousing rendition of  “Victory Dance” from Where I’m Meant To Be.  

The evening would be closed out with an infectious section of Carribean dance tunes which the band called their Salsa section.  The crowd would invariably follow the band’s lead and proceed into non stop motion.  Sandwiched between the opener of “Sao Paulo” and closer “Chapter 7”, Ezra Collective had the crowd whipped into a complete frenzy of soca/salsa dance craziness.

All in all, the evening was simply fantastic.  Sure I wouldn’t have minded it being 10-15 degrees cooler but maybe the high temps helped fuel that feeling of being in NIgeria or somewhere in the West Indies grooving to these rhythms.  Ezra Collective certainly brought it all together, be it the diverse smorgasbord of ethno-musicological influences they bring to their oeuvre or by the extremely diverse crowd which they managed to congregate in Central Park on Sunday night.  I have to say that the crowd assembled for this show just might have been one of the most diverse I’ve seen at any genre of shows in quite some time.  The mixture of young & old along with browns, blacks, whites, yellows and reds made for not just an evening filled with fleeting happiness but more importantly one which I’m sure filled countless hearts with everlasting joy.

Ezra Collective Slideshow

Celeste Slideshow