London based duo Yussef Kamaal drop their highly anticipated debut album ‘Black Focus’ today. Consisting of Kamaal Williams aka Henry Wu and Yussef Dayes (most well known for his work with Afrobeat collective United Vibrations), the pair first crossed paths playing on the underground circuit in South East London. The project spawned from chance appearances playing together for the Boiler room and backing Katy B. Both musicians have little in the way of formal training but manage to absolutely encapsulate the multicultural hustle and bustle of the Capital. Even the name Black Focus is a double entendre; ‘your typical South London Car’ but also a counter movement to the appropriation of Black culture ‘What we’re making is black music, inspired by jazz’.
Black Focus is the perfect example of this inter-connectivity, with the duo inviting many of South London’s finest musicians to feature on the album. Featuring Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings trumpeter Yelfris Valdes, bassists Tom Driessler and Kareem Dayes, and guitarist Mansur Brown. The music is obviously inspired by UK underground – U.K. garage , jungle, grime, hip-hop but also pays homage to the great fusionists like Miles, Herbie hancock and Azymuth.
“It’s all about the drums and the keys,” Williams says. “Not to take anything from anyone else, but that’s where it all originates from: the chords, the rhythm of the chords and the drums.” The wonderful use of rhodes and drums make this whole album flow incredibly smoothly.
The album is released today on Brownswood Records and we highly recommend it to all music fans, whether you like Jazz or not you will like this. You can buy the album below, unfortunately the limited edition and normal vinyl LPs have sold out but there are copies at most reputable records stores around Europe.
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An Ode to the Steez Cafe
Steez Cafe is a South London community gathering where each month young creative Londoners be it artists or musicians come to express themselves in an open and welcoming environment. This cultural institution has been alive since 2011 and has seamlessly bred this network of mind-blowingly talented musicians. You may ask why this is at all relevant to the the release of this new album and the answer would be that it’s not only relevant to this album but it is one of the main reasons that South London is shaping the way for the whole European Jazz Scene. Steez has a huge part to play in the sheer amount of incredible music coming from South of the river at the moment whether its the likes of Moses Boyd, Maisha, Ezra Collective or Yussef Kamaal as lovers of good music we must all take our hats off to them. Oh and by the way we haven’t forgotten Shabaka Hutchings, Theon Cross Trio and Blue Lab Beats also all from South London…