The opening notes of a new wave: Sanjoy Narayan writes on British jazz

Trace a story of royal courts, Caribbean immigrants, and a joyous new sound exemplified by the young Ezra Collective. In this week’s Download Central.

Ezra Collective, an award-winning adrenalin-charged London-based quintet, recently performed at a sold-out show at the British Library.

That’s an unlikely venue for a band whose gigs are known to be so high-energy that their audience always gets up to shake a leg. But then, there was a context: The concert was part of an ongoing exhibition titled Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music.

Yes, 500 years. The earliest record of an African-origin musician in Britain dates to