Ezra Collective's Femi Koleoso: Giving a young person a trumpet can fix problems
'I'll bang this drum a bunch of times and I'll continue to do so until the entire country gets it', he said during Saturday's ceremony.
'This moment right here is because of the great youth clubs, and the great teachers and the great schools that support young people playing music.
'the solution lies with giving a young person a trumpet. the solution lies with giving a young person a saxophone.'@EzraCollective with a perfectly-put speech as they accept Group of the Year 👏 #BRITs pic.twitter.com/XIZYVbi1yy
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) March 1, 2025
'The reason we continue to bang this drum is because so many of the problems that face greater society in the UK, where we're unsure of how to fix it, but the solution lies with giving a young person a trumpet, the solution lies in giving a young person a saxophone.
'Because when you do that, you give them a dream, an aspiration and a goal.'
He then gave a shout-out to some youth clubs and schools.
Ezra Collective became the first jazz group to win the Mercury Prize in 2023 with their second studio album Where I'm Meant To Be.
The five-piece collective is made up of Koleoso, bassist TJ Koleoso, keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, saxophonist James Mollison and trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi.
The group released debut album You Can't Steal My Joy in 2019 and followed it up with Where I'm Meant to Be, released in November 2022 on Partisan Records.
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