Ezra Collective – Where I'm Meant To Be

With Where I’m Meant To Be, the jazz quintet have crafted a supremely effective call to surrender yourself to the present and celebrate life through dance

Album Review by Marco Marcelline | 01 Nov 2022
  • Ezra Collective – Where I'm Meant To Be
Album title: Where I'm Meant To Be
Artist: Ezra Collective
Label: Partisan Records
Release date: 4 Nov

Life Goes On, the opening track of Ezra Collective’s second studio effort, Where I’m Meant To Be, immediately compels you to dance. Decorated with a blazing hot sax and Sampa the Great’s rousing vocals, the track is an exhilarating blast of sonic joy that encapsulates the album’s life-affirming spirit.

At the start of the electric Kojey Radical-assisted No Confusion, we hear commentary from the late Fela Kuti collaborator Tony Allen, who remarks, 'I’m playing jazz my way'. And with the integration of neo-soul, rap and Afrobeats across the album, the Afro-Cuban flavour of Victory Dance, and the dub- and reggae-informed Ego Killah, it’s clear Ezra Collective are doing just that.

Togetherness will trigger many a stank face as the slinky sax and drumkick combo takes on a hypnotic quality, like a snake charmer working his magic in a Moroccan souk. It’s at this point that the brazen swagger expressed in the first few tracks slips into a relaxed quiet confidence that is sustained throughout the rest of the album. 

With Where I’m Meant To Be, the jazz quintet have crafted a supremely effective call to surrender yourself to the present and celebrate life through dance.

Listen to: Life Goes On, Togetherness, Love In Outer Space

http://ezracollective.com