2016-11-04
Black Focus
Yussef Kamaal
By Maeve C.
A 20-minute set at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards in 2016 led to Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams being signed to Peterson’s Brownswood label. The pair had started playing together while rehearsing Williams’s music for a Boiler Room gig, and Black Focus was recorded at Quartermass Studios, with Malcolm Catto of the Heliocentrics engineering most of it.
Dayes plays drums and Williams, credited as Henry Wu, plays Rhodes piano and synth. Shabaka Hutchings adds saxophone and Mansur Brown guitar. The album reached No. 13 on the UK Jazz & Blues chart.
Sources
Artist’s Bandcamp (Brownswood): “released November 4, 2016”; sessions engineered by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics; grew out of a Boiler Room session; tracklist.Independent: released 4 November 2016 on Brownswood; Quartermass Studios; Catto engineered tracks 1–8; Peterson signing after Worldwide Awards set; personnel; UK Jazz & Blues No. 13.
UK and worldwide Brownswood release events all dated 2016-11-04.
Catalogue master identifies the album; not used as date proof.