{"id":4490,"date":"2017-04-20T00:04:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T23:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wasserbassin.com\/site\/?post_type=product&p=4490"},"modified":"2018-08-18T00:37:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T23:37:16","slug":"yussefkamaal-blackfocus-cd","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.wasserbassin.com\/site\/product\/yussefkamaal-blackfocus-cd\/","title":{"rendered":"Yussef Kamaal – Black Focus – CD"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The borders between London\u2019s musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal<\/strong>, the sound of the capital \u2013 with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat \u2013 has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genre\u2019s long-running to-and-fro with hip hop \u2013 from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington \u2013 has reimagined it within US culture. On \u201cBlack Focus\u201d,<\/strong> Yussef Kamaal<\/strong> frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London.<\/p>\n

Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of \u201870s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it\u2019s a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes<\/strong> and Kamaal Williams<\/strong> (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes \u2013 and approach to playing \u2013 are indebted to Thelonious Monk\u2019s piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about the drums and the keys,\u201d Williams says. \u201cNot to take anything from anyone else, but that’s where it all originates from: the chords, the rhythm of the chords and the drums.\u201d Born out of a one-off live session to perform Williams\u2019 solo material for Boiler Room, it soon became a project in its own right. Coming together as Yussef Kamaal, they played a series of live shows where little more than a chord progression would be planned before taking to the stage<\/p>\n

Bringing that unspoken understanding to the recording sessions (engineered by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics), the unplanned, telepathically spawned grooves retain the raw energy of their live shows. \u201cIt’s not so much about complete arrangement, it’s more about flow,\u201d Dayes says. \u201cA lot of the tracks are just made spontaneously \u2013 Henry will be playing two chords, I’ll fill in the groove and we’ll just leave the arrangement naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both hail from South East London, crossing paths in 2007 as teenagers playing their first pub gigs around Peckham and Camberwell. Dayes drums for cosmically-inclined, afrobeat outfit United Vibrations, while Williams \u2013 on top of drumming and playing keys in different incarnations over the years \u2013 has made waves with his solo, synth-draped house 12″s for much-f\u00eated labels like 22a and Rhythm Section.<\/p>\n

Brownswood Recordings<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brownswood Recordings
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The borders between London\u2019s musical tribes have always been porous. For Yussef Kamaal<\/strong>, the sound of the capital \u2013 with its hum of jungle, grime and broken beat \u2013 has shaped a self-taught, UK-tipped approach to playing jazz. In the states, the genre\u2019s long-running to-and-fro with hip hop \u2013 from Robert Glasper to Kamasi Washington \u2013 has reimagined it within US culture. On \u201cBlack Focus\u201d,<\/strong> Yussef Kamaal<\/strong> frame jazz inside the bass-saturated, pirate radio broadcasts of London.<\/p>\n

Taking inspiration from the anything-goes spirit of \u201870s jazz-funk, on albums by Herbie Hancock or the Mahavishnu Orchestra, it\u2019s a loose template with plenty of room to experiment. The pair, made up of Yussef Dayes<\/strong> and Kamaal Williams<\/strong> (aka Henry Wu), have had little in the way of formal training. Instead, their musical tastes \u2013 and approach to playing \u2013 are indebted to Thelonious Monk\u2019s piano as much as the drum programming of Kaidi Tatham.<\/p>\n

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\u25ba CLICK HERE TO LISTEN<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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