Ezra Collective

CTL-E-5264 · Person · group · 2016–present

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Ezra Collective is a London jazz quintet — drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso, his brother TJ Koleoso on bass, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, saxophonist James Mollison and trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi — whose members met through the Tomorrow's Warriors youth jazz programme. Fusing jazz with Afrobeat, hip-hop, calypso and soul, the group released its debut album, You Can't Steal My Joy, in 2019, featuring Jorja Smith and Loyle Carner. Its second album, Where I'm Meant To Be (2022), won the 2023 Mercury Prize — making Ezra Collective the first jazz act ever to win it — and in 2025 the band became the first jazz act named Group of the Year at the BRIT Awards. Dance, No One's Watching followed in 2024, and Here Because of Hope, released in September 2026, debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-15 under CTL-GOV-006 (Next Slate C); Gate A clear; Gate B met (3 independent sources incl. Reuters and a university source). Type note: classed Person per the graph convention for named groups, with subtype “group” per the schema's Person guidance (“an individual, or a named group/ensemble (use subtype 'group')”) — the brief's musician default was adjusted for this one record and the adjustment is disclosed here and in the packet red team. CTL treatment: Here Because Of Hope stands at No. 3 on CTL's Clear Ear Award album library slate (2026-10-05); named in 16 distinct CTL corpus files (22 mentions) per the 2026-10-15 corpus gap scan. Statistics carried: Mercury Prize 2023, first jazz winner in the prize's history (Reuters, Sept. 7, 2023); Here Because of Hope UK Albums Chart debut at No. 1 (Official Charts data via Wikipedia, Sept. 2026); formation-year variance (2012 vs 2016) flagged in red team — era uses the documented years-active span. Photo slot: CLEARED CANDIDATE — see packet §Photo Slots.

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Ezra Collective” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Collective (primary source)
• Reuters (syndicated), “Jazz quintet Ezra Collective wins Mercury Prize,” Sept. 7, 2023 — https://wixx.com/2023/09/07/jazz-quintet-ezra-collective-wins-mercury-prize/
• Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, “Ezra Collective win Mercury Prize” (institutional report; two members are alumni) — https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/blog/ezra-collective-win-mercury-prize/

Record CTL-E-5264 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 3 sources (1 primary) · CTL research: PPL-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

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