Chapter 7 album – Ezra Collective

Debut jazz LP by alumni from Tomorrow’s Warriors featuring rapper Ty and songstress Zara McFarlane

Ezra Collective is a five-piece outfit that sprang from Tomorrow’s Warriors, a London-based platform for young jazz musicians that is run by Gary Crosby. The bassist was a founding member of the renowned Jazz Warriors, an ’80s group that launched the careers of saxophonist Courtney Pine, vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and many more talented folk.

If the Jazz Warriors were around today, they’d be performing the kind of snappy compositions that appear on Chapter 7. Enter The Jungle and Chasing The Square are nimble straight-ahead outings that allow the quintet to flaunt their craft.

But jazz is a hard sell, so Ezra Collective will be relying on the title track and I Have A God to broaden their audience. The former features London rapper Ty, while the latter showcases the rich vocals of Brownswood‘s Zara McFarlane. Both songs are splendid.

Chapter 7 concludes with Colonial Mentality, a reggae track that brings to mind the work of Gary Crosby’s Jazz Jamaica outfit.

On this page are three songs from Chapter 7, which can be bought on CD and vinyl from the group’s Ezra Collective Bandcamp page. Currently, the outfit is generously offering digital downloads for whatever you can afford.

The likes of Mercury Music Prize nominees Soweto Kinch and Denys Baptiste came from Tomorrow’s Warriors and judging from Chapter 7, Ezra Collective are poised to collect some notable gongs, too.