Everybody

Album: Dance, No-One's Watching (2024)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Everybody," the final track on Ezra Collective's third album, Dance, No-One's Watching, is an instrumental jazz number that reflects the band's journey. They set out to capture the spirit of the diverse dance floors they encountered during their 2023 world tour, a tour that followed their triumphant Mercury Prize win.
  • Ezra Collective took inspiration for Dance, No One's Watching from their friend Steve McQueen's BBC drama Lovers Rock, part of his 2020 Small Axe series. The album unfolds like a perfectly choreographed Saturday night: the anticipation, the crescendo of revelry, and the quiet epiphany of the morning after.

    "Everybody" delivers the Sunday morning homecoming with an epiphanic vision of Heaven based on a Nigerian Baptist church song. "A night out can be exemplary of life," drummer and bandleader Femi Koleso told Mojo magazine. "It has a birth, a middle, and end."
  • Ezra Collective recorded Dance, No-One's Watching in just three days at Abbey Road Studios just after the Notting Hill Carnival. They spent the first day nursing post-Carnival hangovers and setting up the gear. The intention was pure and simple: capture the unfiltered magic of their live shows, complete with an audience of family and friends to stave off overthinking.

    "What you're hearing is very, very real," Koleoso told the BBC. "We just played it, listened back, and said, 'Yeah, put it on vinyl.'"
  • Dance, No-One's Watching danced its way to #7 on the UK Albums Chart, marking Ezra Collective's first-ever Top 10 record. The group enjoyed Top 40 success in 2022 with their Mercury Prize-winning second album, Where I'm Meant To Be.

    The previous jazz album to hit the UK Top 10 was Here's to Christmas, a big-band effort by former footballer and pundit Chris Kamara, which reached #8 in 2019.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Prince

PrinceFact or Fiction

Prince is shrouded in mystery, making him an excellent candidate for Fact or Fiction. Is he really a Scientologist? Does he own an exotic animal?

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)

Graham Bonnet (Alcatrazz, Rainbow)Songwriter Interviews

Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai were two of Graham's co-writers for some '80s rock classics.

P.F. Sloan

P.F. SloanSongwriter Interviews

P.F. was a teenager writing hits and playing on tracks for Jan & Dean when he wrote a #1 hit that got him blackballed.

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.

Ralph Casale  - Session Pro

Ralph Casale - Session ProSongwriter Interviews

A top New York studio musician, Ralph played guitar on many '60s hits, including "Lightnin' Strikes," "A Lover's Concerto" and "I Am A Rock."