‘We’ve had moments of devastating pain’: jazz icons Ezra Collective on their new album – and why we can’t rely on the government

Speaking at a Guardian Live event at Love Supreme festival, the band tell us about lessons with Tony Allen, mayhem in Lagos and why musicians should be ‘pillars of the community’

At Sussex’s Love Supreme festival last weekend, Femi Koleoso and James Mollison of British jazz figureheads Ezra Collective joined me for a wide-ranging conversation on their artistry, the power of the dancefloor and hopes for the future of British music.

With Koleoso noting that “dancefloors are dancefloors, whether it’s people with instruments or people with turntables, there’s a synergy between all those spaces”, the pair reminisced about some of their own favourite dancefloor memories. Mollison mentioned east London’s now-shuttered Passing Clouds, while Koleoso remembered north London’s University of Dub night at the Scala, as well as Sunday sessions at the Haggerston pub, where a jazz jam would take place at the same time as a disco night: “I was so conflicted on which room to go to!”
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