Yussef Dayes

Born in London in 1992 and raised in the south of the city, Yussef Dayes grew up in a family environment steeped in jazz, reggae, hip‑hop and British Black music. A drummer, composer and producer, he first made his mark with United Vibrations, a group he formed with his brothers, which blended afrobeat, contemporary jazz and rock energy on the albums Galaxies Not Ghettos (2011) and The Myth of the Golden Ratio (2016). He broadened his audience with the duo Yussef Kamaal, formed with keyboardist Kamaal Williams; their 2016 album Black Focus helped bring visibility to London’s emerging jazz scene by mixing jazz‑funk, broken beat, fusion and improvised groove. After that project ended, Dayes pursued a more personal path, alternating live formats and collaborations — notably with Tom Misch on What Kinda Music (2020), a record that dialogues between jazz, soul, hip‑hop and electronic textures. Surrounded on stage and in the studio by musicians such as Rocco Palladino and Charlie Stacey, Dayes has honed a very physical, supple and polyrhythmic drumming style in service of an open music where improvisation remains central. His first solo album, Black Classical Music, was released in 2023.