Ezra Collective return with new music and UK tour dates!
It’s the first new music from the band since they scooped the Mercury Prize in 2023.
Mercury prize winning jazz superstars Ezra Collective are back with brand new music for 2024 and a mammoth UK and EU tour. As a follow up to last year’s award-winning ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’ LP they’ve just unveiled a new single, called ‘Ajala’, named after Olabisi Ajala, the Ghanaian-Nigerian world adventurer and writer, and promising to interpolate the sounds of Afrobeat and Highlife with Jazz.
Bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso says “‘Ajala travel’ is slang for someone that can't sit still. It's the way a lot of people would describe me, but for me it's also what a great drum beat does, it's what great music does to me, it means I can't sit still and I just want to move. Ajala is all about that movement.” At the same time, Femi has told us that a new album is “on the horizon”.
With the announcement of new music comes a run of 20 EU and UK tour dates, including Ezra’s biggest headline show to date (and the only jazz band to ever headline at the Wembley OVO Arena, after selling out the Royal Albert Hall and the Hammersmith Apollo in 2023).
The live shows start on 15th October in Berlin, taking in a sweep of European cities like Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan before heading home to the UK and taking in shows in Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, Bristol and London, with tickets on sale for all those dates next week – 3rd May.
Ezra’s next performance though will be on 11th May as they help launch the British Library’s upcoming Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British music exhibition.
EZRA COLLECTIVE – HEADLINE UK / EU TOUR 2024
15th Oct - Berlin, Astra
16th Oct - Hamburg, Docks
18th Oct - Copenhagen, Amager Bio
19th Oct - Stockholm, Vasateatern
20th Oct - Oslo, Rockefeller
22nd Oct - Cologne, Gloria
24th Oct - Amsterdam, Paradiso
25th Oct - Lyon, Transbordeur
27th Oct - Milan, Magazzini Generali
28th Oct - Zurich, Kaufleuten
30th Oct - Paris, Olympia
31st Oct - Lille, Aèronef
1st Nov - Brussels, AB
6th Nov - Birmingham, Institute
7th Nov - Leeds, Project House
8th Nov - Glasgow, Barrowlands
10th Nov - Manchester, Apollo
11th Nov - Dublin, 3Olympia
13th Nov - Bristol, Beacon
15th Nov - London, OVO Arena Wembley