Firstly, a qualifier: I am not a jazz aficionado. I’ve only scratched the surface of the vast and exotic confines of this fundamental genre of music, listening primarily to contemporary jazz musicians such as Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding and Kamasi Washington. Therefore, I am approaching Yussef Kamaal’s debut album, Black Focus, as an outsider to traditional jazz but, as far as I understand, Yussef Kamaal’s album does not fit within the confines of traditional jazz.
Yussef Kamaal consists of drummer Yussef Dayes and keyboardist Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu.) With neither having had any level of formal training, their music is formed through their own experience of life growing up in London. Even though Williams is primarily a solo musician, this doesn’t detract from the tight musical bonds between the pair. When Boiler Room, the London-based live music platform, asked Williams to perform his work live for them, he recruited Dayes to play drums for the performance. Watching it on YouTube, it’s no wonder the pair decided to continue the project and form Yussef Kamaal. The energy and musical tension in the room can be sensed even through a computer screen.
It’s a stretch to pigeon-hole Black Focus solely as jazz; funk, afrobeat and acid jazz are just as prominent in the music. Their experience growing up in London exposed the pair to the sounds of grime, garage and the capital’s pirate radio stations, forming their musical heritage. Juxtapose this with their unique perspective on jazz, and the genres of the album tend to shift as if like air. The solid groove of “Lowrider” harks back to the early 90s acid jazz of Jamiroquai and Young Disciples; Dayes’s drumbeats throughout are reminiscent of the wild, energetic sounds of afrobeat; the delicious bass lines are straight from the era of funk and disco. Dayes’s drumming is integral to the structure of the music. Where necessary, the drums provide a solid but intricate beat. In “Remembrance” the drum beat tumbles through the bass and keys. Towards the end of the same song, the drums erupt back into erratic beats before being drawn back in on “Yo Chavez” where Dayes’s use of brushes changes the whole dynamic of the song. The drums not only form the structure of the music, but frequently contrast with the other elements, providing another layer to the already intricate sounds. In “Strings of Light”, the sporadic, syncopated sounds of the drumming confront the steady electronic string instrumentation pulsating over the surface of the track.
The contemporary popular British music scene often lacks the influential forms of jazz. In the States, there are the sounds of Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington but in Britain, there has been a distinct lack of leaders in the field. Now, we have the futuristic sounds of Yussef Kamaal. Heavily influenced by the sounds of London’s urban culture, Black Focus comprises a particularly unique style of jazz and one that is specifically British.
Perhaps this will be the album upon which we will see a resurgence of British contemporary jazz.
