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Yussef Kamaal - Black Focus
The borders between Londons musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal, the sound of the capital - with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat - has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genres longrunning to-and-fro with hip hop - from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington - has reimagined it within US culture. On Black Focus, Yussef Kamaal frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London. Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of 70s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, its a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes - and approach to playing - are indebted to Thelonious Monks piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.
The borders between Londons musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal, the sound of the capital - with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat - has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genres longrunning to-and-fro with hip hop - from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington - has reimagined it within US culture. On Black Focus, Yussef Kamaal frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London. Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of 70s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, its a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes - and approach to playing - are indebted to Thelonious Monks piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.
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From $15.30
Yussef Kamaal - Black Focus—
$15.30
Description
The borders between Londons musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal, the sound of the capital - with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat - has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genres longrunning to-and-fro with hip hop - from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington - has reimagined it within US culture. On Black Focus, Yussef Kamaal frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London. Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of 70s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, its a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes - and approach to playing - are indebted to Thelonious Monks piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.
