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At Sussex’s Love Supreme Festival last weekend, Femi Koleoso and James Mollison of British jazz Ezra Collective joined me for a wide-ranging conversation about their art, the power of the dancefloor and their hopes for the future of British music.
Koleoso realized that “dancefloors and dancefloors, whether they are people with instruments or people with turntables, there is a connection between all these places”, the two recalled some of their favorites. Mollison mentioned East London’s now-closed Passing Clouds, while Koleoso recalled London’s University of Dub night at Scala, and Sunday sessions at the Haggerston pub, where a jazz jam would take place at the same time as a disco night: “I was very conflicted about which room to go to!”
The Haggerston became an important venue, not just for fun: it was also where drummer Koleoso first met his future mentor, Afrobeat founder and collaborator Fela Kuti, Tony Allen. “I was playing at a jazz jam the other night and someone came up to me afterwards and said he liked the way I played and asked who my favorite drummer was,” he said. “I told them Tony Allen and they just laughed. Later that night, he came to me on the phone and there was Tony on the other end of the line. I asked him if he would teach me how to play the drums and he told me to stay at his house the following Friday.”
Unaware that Allen lived in Paris, Koleoso spent the next months traveling on Megabus overnight trips from London to the French capital to perform with him every week. “He focused on teaching me how to take things out of my game instead of adding to it,” Koleoso said. “I recorded some of the lessons on my phone and I still listen to them now and think about how to add more space. Sometimes you have to play the music and not the drums.”
Taking several questions from Guardian readers, the two thought about some of the places they like to sing, from homecoming concerts in London to performing at the famous Fela Kuti Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria – where “it’s very difficult, playing at night for almost ten years,” said Koleoso – to the recent Fuji Rock festival in Tokyo. “It’s the only time we’ve ever heard that we can put the energy down to set up a team,” Mollison said. “Before we went on stage it was very peaceful and beautiful but as soon as we started the crowd started flooding in. We caused chaos!”
Fierce promoters of youth clubs and grassroots support for the arts in the UK, the pair took an enthusiastic tone when answering a reader’s question about what people can do in the face of budget cuts to help young people find music outlets. “We should all see ourselves as pillars of the community, so if you have a musical instrument and can sing, teach someone who can’t and invite them to join,” Koleoso said. “Where we go wrong is relying on government officials, governments and organizations, when we can make such changes ourselves, instead of waiting for them to happen. It is the change of attitude that is most important.”
They first came to Love Supreme as teenagers during its first year in 2013. “It’s a place that understands how jazz is a big sound,” Koleoso said. “It’s a song that could mean Ella Fitzgerald as much as (pianist) Robert Glasper or Earth Wind & Fire, who headlined one of the nights I was there. We want to bring that diversity to everyone.”
Eager to return to the festival grounds and discover new talent, Koleoso and Mollison closed with details of their upcoming fourth album, Here Because of Hope, which will be released in September. “It’s been an incredible blessing as a team to bond with joy and happiness, but the process of writing this was being honest when you’re in pain,” Koleoso said. “There have been some very painful times in recent years, from what’s happening in the world to losing a child at a youth club, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone. This record was born out of an attempt to bring joy when we’re struggling and it’s an important reminder to be happy together – always love instead of hate.”
