FEATURE:
Where They’re Meant To Be
IN THIS PHOTO: Ezra Collective
Following Ezra Collective’s Mercury Prize Victory, Why a New Spotlight Needs to Be Shone on British Jazz
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THERE was nothing to criticise…
IN THIS PHOTO: Ezra Collective collect their Mercury Prize at the Eventim Apollo on 7th September, 2023, joyfully overseen by host Lauren Laverne/PHOTO CREDIT: JM Enternational/Getty Images
the Mercury Prize about this year. That seems harsh but, in past years, there have been accusations that the ceremony is too focused on London artists. I think that is still true - and something that needs to be addressed -, but there has been a certain air of predictability in the past. The artists you feel were going to win have. That is not a bad thing, though the element of awarding the ‘underdog’ or artist more deserving of that exposure. Every year, there seems to be this limiting of Jazz and Folk. You may get one artist/album from each genre but, by and large, other genres are in the spotlight - artists seen as more ‘accessible’ or mainstream. This year, when Ezra Collective’s second studio album, Where I’m Meant to Be, was listed among the dozen shortlisted albums this year, many thought they would not win. Bookies gave long odds. There is always cries that it is tokenism having one Jazz or Folk artist. An also-ran that shows that, whilst the Mercury Prize is diverse in who it nominates, it offers very few surprises in terms of Jazz and Folk. When Ezra Collective (perhaps unexpectedly) won yesterday night, they started by thanking God. I am an atheist and know that it is their raw talent that led to the win, though there is something almost divine and preordained working to create that moment last night. The whole audience at the Eventim Apollo were rapturous. The group were on their knees in shock and joy! A band who will lead more eyes the way of British Jazz and its huge importance. The first time in a long time that the Mercury Prize has gone to an unexpected winner, yet one that thoroughly deserved to win. I am not sure whether this will lead to a bit of an evolution and revolution when it comes to them and the public taking Jazz more seriously. Definitely, future years will see the awards push away from the more mainstream and predictable artists and more to the vital outskirts. I still think that the London-centric thing is a big problem that means artists anywhere north of London seem to struggle and come away empty-handed – when was the last time we saw an artist not born or based in London win…?!
PHOTO CREDIT: chevanon via Freepik
I hope that there are a lot of features written about British Jazz right now. How it is among the most vibrant, eclectic and important music being made. Many people still have this image of Jazz: quite stuffy, stiff and boring, that is not the case at the moment! Jazz is vibrant, all-embracing and inclusive. Whether it is Ezra Collective and the importance and wonder of their instrumentation, or a Jazz vocalist who can articulate and resonate like nobody else, we need to get out of that mindset that Jazz is periphery, inessential or, when it comes to award shows, there to make up the numbers! Ezra Collective proved that things are going to change! The Guardian reacted to Ezra Collective winning the Mercury Prize (the first Jazz act to do so) – and a long-overdue acknowledgement of the golden age of British Jazz:
“A slight sense of disbelief attended the announcement that Ezra Collective’s Where I’m Meant to Be had been awarded the 2023 Mercury prize. You could hear it in the audience’s reaction – the cheer was underpinned by a sort of delighted gasp – and you could certainly see it in the band’s: they literally collapsed in a heap on the floor by their table. Their acceptance speech began with a thank you to God: “If a jazz band winning the Mercury prize doesn’t make you believe in God, nothing will.”
You could see why. The joke about the Mercury prize’s tokenism when it comes to jazz and folk music has been running for almost as long as the prize itself. Virtually every year, a solitary artist from those fields gets nominated and invariably goes away empty-handed. It’s been mocked as a patronising pat on the head, but you seldom hear the artists themselves grumbling: mainstream exposure for jazz and folk is scanty at best and sales figures are seldom huge, making the publicity surrounding the prize and any resulting bump in sales more important than you suspect it is for, say, Arctic Monkeys.
This year, however, felt slightly different. As evidenced by the performances at the ceremony itself, it was a strong field, but there was a sense that Dublin quartet Lankum might actually be in with a chance – their intense, experimental approach to traditional Irish music is suffused with influences from deep in the musical left-field and has attracted both blanket critical acclaim and an audience that one suspects don’t usually spend much time with trad arr tunes.
And the reception Ezra Collective’s reading of Victory Dance was afforded seemed noticeably different from the polite applause that usually greets the jazz nominee on the night: it got a spontaneous standing ovation. You could see why: it was joyous and funky and party-starting, as good an advertisement for seeing them live as can be imagined.
You can also see why Where I’m Meant To Be won. It stirs together Afro-Cuban rhythms and post-bop with rap – both Sampa the Great and 2022 Mercury nominee Kojey Radical are among the guests – dub, funk and dance music and transforms Sun Ra’s Love In Outer Space into slick jazz-inflected soul with a vocal by the singer Nao, another former Mercury nominee. It’s an album where the influence of spiritual jazz coexists with Afrobeat; it successfully captures the band’s live energy, its kinetic power never dipping despite its 70-minute running time. It’s approachable and celebratory without in any way seeming lightweight or drifting too far from the band’s roots: an album that people who don’t normally consider themselves jazz fans might fall for, but still resolutely a jazz album.
There are times when you wonder aloud at what the point of the Mercury prize is: when it feels like a meaningless addendum to mainstream success, when it appears to be simply telling people something they already knew. A jazz album winning may well prove an aberration, and things may go back to business as usual next year, but if their victory means that Where I’m Meant To Be finds a wider audience than it has thus far then the 2023 Mercury prize has done a good thing, and made itself seem worthwhile in the process”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Glasgow-born Jazz sensation Georgia Cécile
Look wider afield for articles and spotlighting, there is precious little about the richness of British Jazz righty now. Aside from a new wave of talent coming through, established artists like Georgia Cécile, Nubya Garcia, The Comet Is Coming (who splice other genres with Jazz to create a distinct sound), and Jasmine Myra, there are so many brilliant young Jazz artists coming through in the U.K. I think, like other genes, it is hard to classify what is ‘Jazz’ and whether it is R&B, Soul or Pop. That is why it is bemusing that Jazz is still viewed by many to be old-fashioned, immobile and rather studied. Like you have to endure the music rather than enjoy it. Get lost inside it. Artists are keeping Jazz ethos and sensibilities at the heart of their music but, consider musicians like Emma-Jean Thackray, and how versatile they are. Rather than distilling Jazz, it is a more experimental and broad. There is still Jazz music that conforms people’s ideas. Even so, if you call it pure Jazz or something else, it is clear that the music being produced around the world in the genre is magnificent. Here, we have so many incredible artists to watch. Camille Munn is someone who combines Jazz with Neo-Soul and R&B. I like the fact that many artists are pairing Jazz with the soulfulness, smoothness and sensuality of R&B. On the other side of the spectrum, you have something more electric like Ezra Collective. Whereas genres celebrated and prioritised such as Pop is seen as homogenous and quite robotic/samey at the moment, there now needs to be new focus on Jazz coming out of Britain. The opposite of modern Pop: uplifting, spiritual, political, celebratory, people-uniting and real. Music that you can almost physically feel getting into your soul and coursing through your veins!
Celebratory and infectious, their incredible musicianship and connection is at the heart of everything Ezra Collective and their British contemporaries do. I think that their Mercury Prize win will inspire so many Jazz artists. Nubiyan Twist and Jazz drummer Moses Boyd are award-nominated, spectacular Jazz artists. Adding something cooler to the Jazz melting pot, Blue Lab Beats are well worth listening out for. Check out Yakul’s Jazz-infused sounds. Poppy Ajudha, whilst perhaps not primarily a Jazz artist, mixes Soul and R&B, her melodious are reminiscent of classic Jazz. Kamaal Williams is at the forefront of experimental British Jazz. I don’t think that you can be a purist when it comes to Jazz. Whether integrated with other genres to create a new sound, or nodding back to classic Jazz artists, there is this vibrancy and richness running through British Jazz. Even if a lot is focused in London, there are plenty of great British Jazz artists coming from outside the capital. I guess there is an allure and the fanbase in the capital that proves so attractive to musicians. It is not only clubs like Ronnie Scott’s that are staging these artists. Ezra Collective are playing all kinds of venues. Even before they won the Mercury Prize last night, they had this incredible core of fans. Beloved and huge respected, this will take them to the next level! The collective have gigs in Australia very soon. This is pretty impressive! It is also further proof that Jazz in Britain translates beyond pure genre labels and cliches. It travels and impacts geographically. That demand from fans right across the world. We do need to get out of this insulting and incorrect assumption Jazz is boring, too quirky, magical or too weird or unengaging to integrate into the mainstream and deserve wider respect!
If you prefer instrumental Jazz other vocals, there are groups and artists who give you a lot of choice. From mixing African rhythms, drums, a swirl of brass and infectious jubilance through to more intense percussion and a nod to legends like Miles Davis, all the way along to something soothing and blue, there is something out there for you. Plenty of wonderful Jazz vocalists who are writing stunning original songs and adding their stamp onto standards. This colour chart and cocktail menu of British Jazz is expanding and evolving by the year. Offering Jazz fans and new converts so much to enjoy. Music that is far less disposable and uninspired than the mainstream’s best and most celebrated. If we once viewed a Jazz album’s inclusion on the Mercury shortlist as box-ticking – and that album is given poor odds – where they would never win, an historic and much-warranted win for Ezra Collective will spread way beyond the Mercury Prize. It will make people reassess Jazz and explore it more. Seeing this band of brothers and sisters. An affirmative and enormously skilled group of musicians take Jazz to new places is going to reverberate around the music world! It also means that there will be long-overdue light and discussion about British Jazz. About the artists we have in our midst who are keeping Jazz fresh, alive and moving, to the new crop on the fringes who are making interesting moves. Among the most soul-enriching, important and soul and heart-lifting music around, Jazz is no longer a punchline or byword for in-accessibility. British Jazz has been mesmeric for decades now - although I feel things are visibility changing now. More exposure beyond stations like Jazz FM (a superb station). With stations like BBC Radio 6 Music championing acts like Ezra Collective and Nubya Garcia, progress is being made. It is high time that we all celebrated and bowed our heads in thanks and praise to British Jazz’s…
KINGS and queens.