Post your questions for Ezra Collective at the Love Supreme Festival | Ezra Collective

Vanguards of the London jazz scene, five-piece collective Ezra have spent the past decade electrifying stages from Glastonbury to Wembley Arena with their quirky, high-energy songs. Making history in 2023 by becoming the first – and so far only – jazz band to win the Mercury Prize, and going on to win Best Group at the BRIT Awards in 2025, the group has come to define an improvisational sound that blends jazz traditions with the infectious West African melodies and rhythms that bandleader Femi Koleoso and his brother, bassist TJ Koleoso, grew up on.

Formed in 2012 after meeting at a popular jazz workshop called Warriors of Tomorrow, the group spent their early years infiltrating jazz establishments such as Ronnie Scott’s club in London to catch older greats like drummer Tony Allen, and began writing music that fused Allen’s afrobeats alongside their love of hip-hop and jazz standards. Their first EP, Chapter 7, was released independently in 2016, coinciding with the arrival of a whole new scene of young players like saxophonist Nubia Garcia and drummer Moses Boyd, who have shaken off the stifling traditionalism of jazz stereotypes to instead attract a newer, younger audience to the music.

In the years since, Ezra Collective has released three albums that oscillate freely between soul jazz, funk, soul, R&B, and hip-hop, all grounded in the pulse of their writing on the dance floor. Collaborators have flocked to appear with the group, including rappers Lowell Carner and Koji Radical, singers Olivia Dean and Jorja Smith and even Arsenal football legend Ian Wright. In September, the band will release their fourth album, Here Cause of Hope.

Paying tribute to the vibrant presence of youth clubs during its Mercury Prize speech, the group also regularly holds mentoring workshops for young musicians, and has collaborated with youth groups such as Kinetica Bloco at Glastonbury and on stage at the Brit Awards.

Now you have the chance to ask Ezra Collective anything you want to know about their origins in the band, the state of British jazz, their next album and what it takes to ensure the continuity of young talent in the UK.

On Friday 3 July at 4pm, I will be in conversation with the group at the Love Supreme Festival in East Sussex, and they are particularly keen to hear from music students, teachers and young people – as well as anyone else with a burning enquiry. Write your questions in the comments below and the best ones will be put on stage, and a summary of the Q&A session will also be posted online shortly afterwards.