6 Music is rightfully proud of its dedication to musical diversity. In Manchester last weekend, day two of the BBC’s 6 Music Festival was a celebration of that sonic multiplicity.
During the evening, Victoria Warehouse was taken over by the energising beats of Jamz Supernova before filling with the eclectic sounds of Fat Dog, the latter playing a set that veered from cacophonic noise to music which collided hints of Madness with Egyptian overtones. All wrapped with a swirl of klezmer, it was high energy throughout before they closed with the nerve-jangling Running, briefly creating a whirling mass of runners in the crowd before dissolving into a mosh pit.
Finally, Ezra Collective took to the stage, giving a performance which was a demonstration of the power of stepping outside the accepted norm. Bathed in the glow of warm-toned lights, the Brit award and Mercury prize-winners wove a musical cocoon of joy around the audience. Instruments intertwined with each other, building into thrumming crescendos until single threads emerged and took centre stage. Entrancing drum solos, jubilant trumpet, flowing sax and keys like clear drops of honey each had their moment on centre stage before rejoining in rolling melody.
Ezra Collective. Credit: BBC Radio 6 Music / Shirlaine Forrest.
For this headline act, the band looked beyond their own story and focused on the future. After meeting at the Tomorrow’s Warriors youth club, they dedicated their performance to youth clubs and the teachers who run them. Drummer Femi Koleoso drew cheers from the bobbing crowd as he explained that “if we can learn to champion youth clubs and schools and celebrate teachers and people that pour into young people, all of the other problems in society will be fixed. If you fix the foundation, suddenly the building can stand strong.” As the audience roared its appreciation, he said: “If you give a 13-year-old boy a clarinet, the only thing they want to do after school is play it. Anything negative that might come into their mind, they’re thinking, but I’ve got clarinet to play…You start putting trumpets and saxophones, chessboards, tennis rackets, all of that kind of thing. You put them in schools. Suddenly they grow up and they’re in love with something bigger than the negativity that they’re forced into, that’s the point.”
The energy in Victoria Warehouse exploded when members of London’s youth music group, Kinetika Bloco, flooded the stage, a line of dancers accompanied by a carnival mix of woodwind, brass, drummers, and steel pan players. Their vital playing was emblematic of the power of youth groups, but the highlight was Kinetika Bloco member Maia Avery, helping to close the show with God Gave Me Feet For Dancing and her smile-filled voice.
Raised arms, jumping bodies, feet dancing. By the end of the night, Ezra Collective had turned Victoria Warehouse into a temple of joy.
Main image: Ezra Collective. Copyright BBC Radio 6 Music / Shirlaine Forrest.
