Yussef Dayes: Black Classical Music (2LP) [BROWNSWOOD]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set comes in an embossed gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves, pressed in Germany. The album won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Album in 2024, and Uncut called it an expansive, soulful set.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Embossed gatefold jacket
• Printed inner sleeves
• Pressed in Germany
• Lyrics included

About the album

Some drummers spend years making other people sound good before they get around to themselves. Yussef Dayes did plenty of that: with his brothers in United Vibrations, with keyboardist Kamaal Williams as Yussef Kamaal on Black Focus, and alongside Tom Misch on What Kinda Music, which reached No. 4 on the UK chart. In September 2023 the South Londoner finally stepped out under his own name on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label, with Nonesuch handling the U.S.

Black Classical Music is big and generous, a 19-track trip that Clash described as the musical autobiography of a musician central to UK jazz. The title track opens the door, "Afro Cubanism" and "Pon Di Plaza" point to his Jamaican roots and his father's reggae records, Misch returns for "Rust," and "Crystal Palace Park" and "Tioga Pass" stretch out into West Coast fusion. Through all of it the drums lead, nimble and conversational, with grime and hip hop energy folded into every groove.

Dayes's father gave him his first kit at four, and he grew up the youngest of four brothers, all of them taught piano. The Dayes house, we imagine, was not a quiet one, and this record suggests the neighbours got the best of the bargain.

Also at Kops: more Yussef Dayes on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Brownswood Recordings / Nonesuch (cat# BWOOD0310LP), the 2023 album.