EZRA COLLECTIVE — Dance, No One's Watching (review)

EZRA COLLECTIVE — Dance, No One's Watching album cover Album · 2024 · African Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Londoners Ezra Collective were the first jazz band to receive the prestigious Mercury Prize. For their third studio album, "Dance, No One's Watching," the promotional campaign for the album started months before the release date, quite unusual for a jazz release. One of the very first singles, released before the album's release, neo-soul "God Gave Me Feet For Dancing" with Yazmin Lacey's vocals, became a hit in its own right. Not surprisingly, right after the release the album received massive press, mostly very positive.

"Dance, No One's Watching" is an excellent danceable album, combining some better components from London's new jazz scene of the New Millenium. Predominantly up-tempo, it offers Afro-beat, Caribbean, Latin, and South African music, mixed with today's London sound and melted in a never-ending dance fest. True, there are not many new ideas or sounds, and very often drums/rhythm are closer to popular danceable music than jazz (in moments the album's music recalled an excellent example of clever danceable music from the past - Sofie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder On The Dancefloor"). The whole sound is quite polished and safe, still, that way the album's music can attract a much wider listeners circle, not just jazz lovers, that's for sure.

One of the better albums this year for feet, not for the head. Dance, God Gave You Feet For Dancing.
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