Qobuzism

It’s a well-known cliché: two heads are better than one. Two years after his debut album, the 24-year-old London multi-instrumentalist Tom Misch (who has a distinctly Jamiroquai-esque sound) has partnered up with 27-year-old drummer/producer Yussef Dayes (the brain behind United Vibrations and one half of the electro-jazz duo Yussef Kamaal) for this irresistible album What Kinda Music. Up until now, Misch has cooked up a gourmet mix of smooth jazz syrup, funky foam, droplets of soul, hip-hop spices and a pinch of velvety pop, inviting along a star-studded line-up including De La Soul, GoldLink, Loyle Carner and Poppy Ajudha while sampling from the likes of Roy Hargrove, The Crusaders, Stevie Wonder and Patrick Watson. All these flavours and sounds form the foundation of this 2020 vintage, making the rhythmic side even more solid. Yussef Dayes jazzes up his interventions and makes his improvisations even more sophisticated. Each artist brings their own contribution to this truly collaborative work and the record strikes a perfect balance of voice and instrumentals. Both artists grew up in Peckham in South London and Tom Misch even saw Dayes play drums in the school talent show when he was 9! “Yussef comes from a more experimental background, and he has a lot of loose, crazy ideas. I know how to write a catchy melody, but with interesting chords and I have a good understanding of popular song forms, so I think I streamlined those ideas and made them accessible.” It’s this perfect symbiosis between accessibility and refined genre fluidity that makes What Kinda Music sound like a laidback trip - perfect record for electro-jazz geeks. Plus, there’s another reason for Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes to bulge their chests with pride: their album has been released on the prestigious label Blue Note, confirming that they embody a certain contemporary jazz sound. “Everything feels so divided these days, it would be nice for people to hear the record and hear two very different musicians coming together and realize it doesn’t have to be that way.” As for the featuring artists, the duo invited along Freddie Gibbs (who raps on Nightrider), Rocca Palladino (son of the illustrious bassist Pino Palladino who often practices with Alfa Mist) and the saxophonist Kaidi Akinnibi. An immediate Qobuzissime, this record is the umpteenth proof that the London jazz scene is alive and kicking… and now showing its funky side! © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The new British jazz scene seems to be an indefinite source of talent, maintaining its creative flow with this first solo album released by Moses Boyd. Fans of the movement will already know that this eclectic young drummer has played alongside Shabaka Hutchings, Zara McFarlane, Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones, Theon Cross and Ashley Henry but also that he makes up one half of duo Binker & Moses, the wild project he pursues with saxophonist Binker Golding. The album Dark Matter sees Boyd as more of a producer than a drummer, with a wide narrative detailing who he is and what he represents: a musician dreaming of becoming the next Max Roach or Tony Williams, all while growing up listening to Dizzee Rascal and Wiley as well as more Caribbean style rhythms, reggae and electronic music. The power of Dark Matter comes from the way in which it brings together a huge cast of varied icons to create a single snapshot of today’s London. Rich in sound, the album’s DNA is made up of jazz but takes us on a journey from afrobeat (BTB) to dubstep (2 Far Gone) before a detour via post-rock (What Now?). With the voices of Poppy Ajudha, Obongjayar and Nonku Phiri and double bass from the ex-Jazz Warrior Gary Crosby, Moses Boyd has created an orgy of off-the-wall rhythms. An album even more unclassifiable than those made by his friends of the same UK jazz scene. Invigorating. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Not a week goes by without a new prodigy emerging from the (very) lively UK jazz scene. Ashley Henry sees the genre as a plurality, mixing together traditional sounds with soul, funk, rap afrobeat, grime and Caribbean sonorities. Born in November 1991, and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music since 2016, the young London pianist is the talk of the town, having already collaborated with household names such as the rapper Loyle Carner, singers from Christine & The Queens, and Zara Mcfarlane, as well as popular jazz cats like Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Jean Toussaint, Jason Marsalis or Anthony Joseph. For his first real studio album, titled Beautiful Vinyl Hunter, Henry crafted an honest musical portrait of his education and multi-cultural heritage. “My music is a clear expression of what I am, of what London is in all her glorious diversity. The immigrant in me has roots that go back to the 17th century. It’s important to me that my music today reflects that lineage, through different styles of music and different generations.”That much is done with energy and vigor, with three drummers – Luke Flowers (Cinematic Orchestra), Eddie Hick and Makaya McCraven, trumpet players Theo Croker, Jaimie Branch and Keyon Harrold, saxophone player Binker Golding, bassist Dan Casimir, percusionnist Ernesto Marichales, singers Judi Jackson and Milton Suggs as well as Sparkz the rapper. Like a new millenium Herbie Hancock, Ashley Henry has a warm, generous groove ; he fusions whatever he touches with ease, such as the Solange - Cranes (In the Sky) cover at the mid-point of his album ! No calculating approaches, juste pure pleasure and the joy of sharing music. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

No point in checking if Alfa Mist has read all of Roland Barthes, the guru of structuralism... Behind his keyboards, the Brit designed his album Structuralism with a more modest objective: “I have been affected by my environment. My upbringing has shaped me in a way where I do not know how to communicate. Structuralism is about, “I am who I am” because of the structure of society I grew up into. Now I need to learn how to communicate.” What Alfa Mist communicates very well with his second album is an innate sense of soft groove and a vital need for exchange. Yet another proof of the strength of today's British jazz scene, which flourishes in soul, funk and hip hop, the latter being the first chapter of the young musician's saga.After spending his days making beats for grime and rap prods, the Londoner discovers jazz through samples and decorates both J Dilla's albums and those of Miles Davis and even Hans Zimmer-composed soundtracks, one of his great idols. Above all, Alfa Mist is self-taught and immersed in the world of piano and keyboards. With Structuralism, he draws, with the help of a Fender Rhodes and a classical piano, the contours of a melancholic and voluptuous soul jazz. An atmospheric groove under influenced by Herbie Hancock/Robert Glasper, which he sculpts with his collaborators Johnny Woodham the trumpeter, drummers Peter Adam Hill and Jamie Houghton, guitarist Jamie Leeming, bassists Kaya Thomas-Dyke and James Rudi Creswick, violinists Katie Neaves, Simmy Singh and Lucy Nolan and cellist Peggy Nolan, not forgetting Jordan Rakai on the song Door. All in all, this pastel-tinted score (no slapped bass or double drums for Alfa Mist!) confirms the talents of a musician that’s certainly one to watch. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

In early 2018, the compilation We Out Here released on Gilles Peterson's label burst onto the young British jazz scene, revealing his dynamism, his energy and above all, his eclecticism. Many attribute saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming, Melt Yourself Down...) as the leader of this trend: a role he has always refused to embody. The boundaries of this jazz, as with musicians of this generation, are deliberately blurred, and the five members of Ezra Collective were all present on this Qobuzissime compilation. With You Can't Steal My Joy, the London group led by drummer Femi Koleoso finally signed their first album. In 2017, their EP Juan Pablo: The Philosopher (which closed with a beautiful cover of Sun Ra's Space is the Place) was a sensation, winning numerous awards and offering a very Afrobeat vision of jazz. These unique qualities can be found on this ultra-funky opus. With Joe Armon Jones on keyboards, TJ Koleoso on double bass, Dylan Jones on trumpet and James Mollison on saxophone, Koleoso orchestrates a refreshingly festive symphony focusing on brass and rhythms: a hybrid made of afrobeat, jazz, hip hop, reggae, Caribbean music and soul. And to better reflect this panoramic vision, Ezra Collective goes on this multi-colored journey with soul sister Jorja Smith (Reason in Disguise), rapper Loyle Carner (What Am I to Do?) and the afrobeat group Kokoroko (Shakara). All that's left is to enjoy this beautiful, eclectic parade of groovy landscapes. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Right hook, left jab, uppercut! The first album from Enemy makes a radical entrance. Behind the name is the young trio of pianist Kit Downes, bassist Frans Petter Eldh ​and drummer James Maddren. Three young faces of the international jazz scene who have already made a name for themselves in solo careers or alongside other pathbreakers. They have joined forces in order to give free rein to their creative impulses and their hunger for freedom. Produced by Eldh himself, this album is very physical: a tidal wave of contemporary jazz. It's a polyrhythmic storm which will delight fans of power trios in the style of the Bad Plus. With a bubbling brew of influences running from Keith Jarrett to Oscar Peterson, Kit Downs sketches out some mindblowing multicoloured improvisations. But the strength of the Brit's piano clearly lies in the way it sticks so closely to the rhythms of Eldh and Maddren, who are the core of this jazz reactor. But Enemy isn't just a byword for power and racing rhythms. When the trio take on ballads, they also unleash a captivating narrative force. Enemy: much friendlier than they look… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

She loves Madeleine Peyroux and Melody Gardot and she doesn't care who knows it. But Hailey Tuck does have a little something of her own up her sleeve. It's a personal touch that makes this young Texan, who has made landfall in Paris, an attractive voice in its own right, and not a pale imitation of anyone else. Larry Klein, who produced her two idols, even agreed to put together the first album of this starlet who shares a hairdresser with Louise Brooks, and a wardrobe with Josephine Baker. Klein even put together a perfect and never over-produced backdrop, with the help of some five-star studio musicians like drummer Jay Bellerose (Elton John, Robert Plant) and guitarist Dean Parks (Joe Cocker, Steely Dan)… In terms of their repertoire, the eclecticism and quality of these covers also displays thoroughgoing good taste. And the fact that she revisits That Don't Make It Junk by Leonard Cohen, Cry To Me, made famous Solomon Burke, Cactus Tree by Joni Mitchell, Some Other Time by Leonard Bernstein, Underwear by Pulp, Alcohol by the Kinks, Junk by Paul McCartney, I Don’t Care Much from the soundtrack to Cabaret and indeed the wonderful Say You Don’t Mind by Colin Blunstone, Hailey Tuck deploys her voice intelligently and with a dash of retro in every word and every phrase. Let this beautiful and timeless Qobuzissime carry you away... © Max Dembo/Qobuz

They knew what they were doing when they named this record Nordub. Nor for North, represented here by Nils Petter Molvaer. In 1997, when the label ECM brought out the stunning album Khmer, this Norwegian trumpeter shook the jazz world by bringing electronic music into his atmospheric musical world. Nor is also his fellow countryman, guitarist Eivind Aarset and Finnish electro-tinkerer and DJ Vladislav Delay. As for the three letters of Dub, they stand for the genre's most classic duo: Sly Dunbar on drums and bassist Robbie Shakespeare. In 2016, this motley crew made up of the Jamaican tandem and Nils Petter Molvaer hit the stage. It was quite a warm-up for their studio session in Oslo. In essence, Molvaer's world has always been a hybrid, bringing together textures that were never exclusively jazz. His playing style uses different atmospheric controls without ever losing the creative strength of his improvisations or compositions. Here, the trumpeter even works his way into the unique Sly & Robbie sound with a perfectly natural air. And that is surely the strength of Nordub. No-one takes over, or tries to overpower the other. The fusion is total, and sincere. We even feel that our two old Jamaican long-distance travellers have strayed out of their normal comfort zone to take part actively in this music as it takes shape. Just like Aarset and Delay's work, every part is a vital component of the final result. Together, our five sound adventurers produce a fine symphony of truly singular dub and jazz. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

And here we go again: London Calling! But this time, the call doesn’t come from the rock ‘n’ roll’s hungry depths but rather from the jazz’ ones. A jazz which we can only label as special so much the young London scene compiled on this We Out Here was built on mixed influences, soul as well as Afrobeat, fusion or electro. To center in on this new generation, Brownswood Recordings, Gilles Peterson’s label, entrusted the album’s artistic direction to the most publicized among them: saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings. Recorded over three days, the selected musicians and bands display a jazz spirit rather than jazz form. Therefore, drummer Jake Long and his formation Maisha play at being voodoo masters in the style of a Pharoah Sanders. Fela’s Afrobeat provides a fertile ground to the Ezra Collective from drummer Femi Koleoso but also to the Kokoroko Collective. While another drumming ace, the charismatic Moses Boyd, wraps up his rhythms in a brilliantly hypnotic electro loop before coming back to the paths of an invigorating libertarian jazz. This Qobuzism colorful like never before, includes instrumentals from the likes of Theon Cross, an impressive tuba marathoner (and incidentally an accomplice of Shabaka Hutchings within the Sons Of Kemet), Nubya Garcia, a saxophonist possessed by Charles Lloyd’s lyricism, and also Joe Armon-Jones, a keyboard mad scientist who knows Herbie Hancock like the back of his hand… With We Out Here, and the new London jazz scene pens a manifesto as dynamic as it is eclectic. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The idea of ​​setting up a quartet of this kind is not new ground for the talented Airelle Besson. In fact, she confessed back in 2014 (the year of that rehearsals with the band began) that she had spent the previous five years studying up on the subject. The chemistry between the band members and Besson takes place very quickly, and the artist puts it down to her choice of collaboration, with Benjamin Moussay (piano, synthesizer) and Fabrice Moreau (drums) both playing important roles. The discovery and addition of the highly adept Isabel Sörling, a Scandinavian vocalist, is another key aspect of the project and one which makes it all the more singular. Organic and minimalist from end to end, the Radio One music ensemble is graceful and delicate. By placing emotion at the heart of the project, the quartet connect with the listener, and vice versa. A wonderful Qobuzism!