Black Focus is the only studio album by English duo Yussef Kamaal, composed of drummer Yussef Dayes and keyboardist Kamaal Williams. It was released on 4 November 2016 under Brownswood Recordings. Characterised by its "spontaneity and flow",
In 2017, when Yussef Kamaal were scheduled to perform in the United States, Dayes' visa was revoked under the Trump administration and the duo broke up shortly afterwards. The album experienced moderate success in the United Kingdom, reaching number 13 on the Jazz & Blues chart. It earned Yussef Kamaal the Breakthrough Award at the 2017 Jazz FM Awards. In 2018, Williams released his debut solo album The Return, which was considered a sequel to Black Focus.
Background and development
In 2008, keyboardist Kamaal Williams met session drummer
Yussef Dayes when Williams held his first event, where the band United Vibrations were booked and Dayes played.
The two kept in touch and played together on occasion, but upon rehearsing William's solo work for a Boiler Room gig, they started playing as a band.
In 2016, the band performed a 20-minute live set at
Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards, after which Peterson landed them a deal at his Brownswood Recordings
record label.
Yussef Kamaal recruited additional musicians for
Black Focus, including saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, trumpeter Yelfris Valdes, bassists Tom Driessler and Kareem Dayes, guitarist Mansur Brown and producer
Malcom Catto, who "worked by ear" when recording the band "as opposed to having things programmed in", according to Williams.
The album was recorded at Quartermass Studios.
Calligrapher Haji Noor Deen wrote the band name in Arabic on the album cover.
Regarding the title Black Focus, Dayes stated that it was "based of a few things. The Black Ford Focus is your typical South London car. We’d be in the studio looking for an idea and see it outside… And I think black culture’s been appropriated in a way, but … people don’t stand up for it. What we’re making is black music, inspired by jazz. People can interpret that title however they want."
Composition
Thom Jurek of
AllMusic classified
Black Focus as "a seamless weave of spiritual
Jazz-funk,
broken beat, and global sounds", with influences from "distinctly British sources its creators grew up on --
Jungle music,
UK garage and grime, hip-hop, post-
Joe Harriott British jazz, and the sound of underground radio".
Kalia Ammar of
Clash wrote that the album has "a consistent soundscape of gently streaking strings morphing into the buzz of Williams'
Synthesizer, all whilst Dayes' frenetic afro-jazz and junglist drum beats rumble beneath".
He continued, saying that the duo "captured the unpredictable and at times fragmented intensity of jazz",
as Dayes expressed maintaining the album's "spontaneity and flow" within the core principles of jazz.
Ammar also compared
Black Focus to the earlier works of Williams as Henry Wu and Dayes' drumming with United Vibrations.
The first half of the opening title track features spoken word, accompanied by horns "amid twinkling Rhodes piano and hand percussion".
Release and reception
Black Focus was released on 4 November 2016.
The album did not enter the UK Albums Chart, but peaked at number 13 on the Jazz & Blues album chart in the United Kingdom.
On the Belgium
Ultratop Flanders chart, it entered at number 91.
In March 2017, shortly before their scheduled performance at the SXSW music festival, Yussef Kamaal were refused entry to the United States after Dayes' visa was revoked in accordance with an executive immigration order implemented by the Trump administration.
Critical reception
Black Focus was met with universal acclaim from
music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
Standard score rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 6 reviews.
Ryan B. Patrick of
Exclaim! praised how Yussef Kamaal "knew jazz and its progenitors, and transformed this knowledge into a dexterous take on the genre".
Alejandra Ramirez of
The Austin Chronicle wrote that the band: "weaved a fabric of jazz steering free of up-nosed traditionalist conventions in pursuit of exploratory grooves and improvisation..." where they "coalesced the bass-rich sounds of European club culture and
Afrobeat rhythmic percussions... through a wash of Seventies fusion epics".
Writing for
The Indian Express, Anushree Majumdar compared the album to
Herbie Hancock's 1973 album
Head Hunters, "But it's tighter, faster, fresh and refuses to colour within the lines of jazz."
James Manning from
Time Out said Yussef Kamaal "sounded a bit like
Weather Report" and that "
Miles Davis is a big prescience, but so is
J Dilla".
Ammar felt that the tracks on Black Focus were "unfinished sketches with grooves that fade in and out from each other. Yet, the consistency with which this choice is exercised still makes the album feel like a seamless progression of an idea from start to finish."
Accolades
Black Focus appeared in year end lists by AllMusic,
and
XLR8R, who praised Yussef Kamaal for "channeling the energy of their live shows".
The album appeared at number 13 on
Time Out Londons year end list, with Eddy Frankel stating "they might just have made jazz cool again".
was ranked at number 22 by
Bandcamp,
and number 20 by
Passion of the Weiss,
while writer Dean Van Nguyen gave testimonials on both sites, stating in Bandcamp: "In a post-Brexit world, where the British legacy of multiculturalism is suffering blow after blow, we need Yussef Kamaal to soften the impact."
The album also ranked at number 19 in
The New York Observer,
number 3 by
Happy Mag,
and number 24 by
Clash.
As a result of
Black Focus, Yussef Kamaal won the Breakthrough act in the 2017 Jazz FM awards.
Legacy
Robin Murray of
Clash considered
Black Focus to be "a seminal moment in
club culture and free music", and argued that Dayes' role in the album "blew the doors wide open for the current reign of
British jazz artists".
Jemima Skala of
Pitchfork said that it "brought the South London jazz scene to the fore in the mid-2010s"
Writing for the same paper, Andy Beta wrote:
"Black Focus grows in importance and resonance. It continues to inform Williams’ subsequent releases, from his house music-indebted productions as Henry Wu to the group he helmed".
Regarding the album's wide range of genres, Yussef Kamaal "captured the culturally diverse districts of the English capital" with their music "against the acidic backdrop of
Brexit-era Britain", according to Nguyen.
While considering the album as "a classic",
Piotr Orlov opined that
Black Focus undermined William's musical abilities.
In contrast, Ammar commented that after his split from Dayes, Williams: "struggled to establish his solo sound without the powerhouse drumming of his former partner Dayes".
Regarding the breakup of the band, Williams stated: "It was not really a split up with Dayes. Music is about continuing the exploration of what it started off... Nothing has really ended; it travelled into something new and fresh now… Even if we do the Yussef Kamaal stuff, everything is fresh everyday."
Track listing
All track are written by Yussef Dayes and
Kamaal Williams.
Personnel
Credits for
Black Focus adapted from the album's liner notes.
-
Yussef Dayes – drums, percussion, production
-
Kamaal Williams – Rhodes piano, synth, production
-
Adelight – recording
-
Mansur Brown – guitar
-
Fabrice Buergelle – photography
-
Malcom Catto – production, engineering, assistant production, recording
-
Guy Davie – mastering
-
Kareem Dayes – bass
-
Haji Noor Deen – calligraphy
-
Tom Driessler – bass
-
Shabaka Hutchings – saxophone
-
Eric Lau – engineering, production
-
Matt&Dan – art direction, design
-
Kengo Oshima – engineer, recording
-
Richard Samuels – assistant production, engineering, production
-
Yelfris Valdes – trumpet
-
Selem Wakazi – photography
-
Gordon Weddenburn – spoken word
Charts
Notes
External links
