Black Focus Yussef Kamaal

• 1 Black Focus 04:34
• 2 Strings of Light 08:28
• 3 Remembrance 09:00
• 4 Yo Chavez 03:59
• 5 Ayla 00:46
• 6 O. G . 00:46
• 7 Lowrider 04:28
• 8 Mansur's Message 02:06
• 9 WingTai Drums 01:16
• 10 Joint 17 08:19
• Total Runtime 43:42

Info for Black Focus

Aufgewachsen in London mit Jungle, Grime und Broken Beats, ist der Jazz-Ansatz von Yussef Dayes und Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu) geprägt durch den Bass-Sound der Piratensender, ähnlich wie die US-Kollegen Robert Glasper oder Kamasi Washington Hip Hop in ihre Musik einfließen lassen. Weitere Inspirationen auf Yussef Kamaals Debütalbum ist der freiheitliche Anything-Goes-Spirit des 1970'er Jazzfunk eines Herbie Hancock oder Mahavishnu Orchestra, während ihr Pianospiel an Thelonious Monk und ihr Drumprogramming an Kaidi Tatham angelehnt ist.

Yussef Kamaal

Yussef Kamaal
are a London-based jazz-funk duo whose members are Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams (aka Henry Wu). Interestingly -- and one suspects not coincidentally -- their name recalls the great Egyptian artist Kamal Yussef, a founding member of the influential, aesthetically revolutionary, and multi-disciplinary Groupe de L'Art Contemporain in Cairo in the 1940s. The band's sound represents a collision of '70s jazz-funk with 21st century London bass, beat, and hip-hop.

Both are South Londoners. Dayes is drummer for Afrobeat band United Vibrations, while Williams is a well-known producer, keyboard player, and drummer who has issued a series of 12" singles under his given name. The pair crossed paths in 2007 while pursuing other musical ventures and kept in touch, intermittently playing together. While rehearsing for a one-off gig of Williams' solo material at the Boiler Room, they decided to form a band. That show, a much-talked-about success built on total groove- and rhythm-based improvisation, led to others. Without pre-planned tunes or arrangements, the music was always spontaneously created, often born from a single drumbeat; Williams has described their music as "...all about drums and keys...." the duo played a 20-minute set at Gilles Peterson's awards show and based on its strength, signed them to his Brownswood label. With the Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto engineering, the pair enlisted six other musicians -- including saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings -- to share their vision in a recording studio, resulting in the full-length Black Focus, issued in November 2016.

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