Release date: September 8, 2023

Genre: Jazz

From: UK

Label: Brownswood Recordings

Why you should listen: Yussef Dayes’ debut album is an emotive, intense and beautiful exploration of life, love, and home. Throughout the 19 tracks, the incredible drumming talent, with the help of Rocco Palladino on bass, Charlie Stacey on keys/synths, Venna on saxophone and Alexander Bourt on percussion, as well as a plethora of incredible features that add their unique talents to this poignant and beautiful body of work. Black Classical Music is frantic, rhythmic, dynamic and soulful, with so many standouts, inlcuding “Raisins Under The Sun” featuring Shabaka Hutchings, “The Light” featuring Bahia Dayes and “Tioga Pass” featuring Rocco Palladino. Effortlessly continuing the lineage of spiritual jazz music, Yussef Dayes has created an incredibly lush and emotive body of work, with this project potentially going down as one of my favourites of the year.

The album: