Yussef Dayes

At age four, Yussef Dayes got his first drum kit from his bass-playing father. At ten, he was studying under Billy Cobham, the fusion legend who had drummed for Miles Davis. Born on 12 December 1992 in South East London, Dayes grew up the youngest of four brothers in a household where jazz, reggae, country, and jungle music all competed for airtime. He and his bassist brother Kareem would play along to their father's records for hours. That immersion turned into something more formal when Dayes, alongside brothers Ahmad and Kareem and saxophonist Wayne Francis II, formed United Vibrations, a group blending Afrobeat with forward-looking jazz and rock. Their debut album, Galaxies Not Ghettos, arrived in 2011.

The project that brought Dayes wider attention was Yussef Kamaal, his duo with keyboardist Kamaal Williams. The two had met around 2007 in the pubs and clubs near Rye Lane in South London. After a Boiler Room session playing Williams's solo material, they realised their shared appetite for 70s jazz-funk and broken beat warranted a proper band. A 20-minute set at Gilles Peterson's 2016 Worldwide Awards led to a deal with Peterson's Brownswood Recordings label. Their album Black Focus, released in November 2016, drew on electronic music, Senegalese percussion, and UK grime, and was met with critical acclaim. The partnership was short-lived. In March 2017, the duo were refused entry to the United States ahead of a SXSW performance after Dayes's visa was revoked under the Trump administration's immigration order. Weeks later, Yussef Kamaal announced their split.

Dayes pressed forward. In 2020, he teamed with guitarist and singer Tom Misch for What Kinda Music, released through Beyond the Groove and distributed by Blue Note Records. The album peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart. That same period saw him build a working trio with bassist Rocco Palladino (son of the legendary Pino) and keyboardist Charlie Stacey. Their live album Welcome to the Hills, recorded at the 2019 Copenhagen Jazz Festival, captured the trio's elastic, high-energy interplay.

His debut solo album, Black Classical Music, arrived on 8 September 2023 via Brownswood Recordings and Nonesuch Records. Spanning 19 tracks, it features Palladino and Stacey alongside guests including Chronixx, Masego, Tom Misch, Shabaka Hutchings, and the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first majority Black and ethnically diverse professional orchestra. The album won the Best Album award at the 2024 Ivor Novello Awards. NPR Music, BBC Radio 6 Music, AllMusic, and the Boston Globe all named it among the best albums of 2023.