Yussef Kamaal - Black Focus

There's probably no need to tell anybody about Yussef Kamaal anymore, the hype machine has been running for weeks. I don't care too much about a hype anymore, there's been to much of that in my life and oftentimes it ended in nothing but disappointment. Hype has sort of become a standard tool in our already oversaturated tool. The good news is, that Yussef Kamaal's debut is impeccable. The pair concisting of United Vibrations drummer Yussef Dayes and Kamaal Williams aka Henry Wu manages to attract the heads as well as the new generation of jazz listeners, and they do so with the versatility and their ability to groove. Both qualities that have been lacking on other fore-runners of this new jazz revival, say Kamasi Washington's much hyped album.

Listening to “Strings of Light” and “Yo Chavez” has been enough for me to click on that shiny buy button, but with every listen there's a new tune that grows on me, that I didn't seem to pay attention to at all. My favourite album this week and available through Brownswood.