Yussef Dayes

The son of a Jamaican bassist exiled in London, where he was born on December 12, 1992, Yussef Dayes was given a drum kit at an early age, but it was his first lessons with Billy Cobham that triggered his interest in jazz and a career as a musician. While still a teenager, he formed the group United Vibrations with his brothers Ahmad Dayes and Kareem Dayes, joined by saxophonist Wayne Francis. Affiliated with London's new jazz scene, the group produced the albums Galaxies Not Ghettos (2011) and The Myth of the Golden Radio (2016). The drummer's encounter with DJ and producer Kamaal Williams led to the recording of the album Black Focus (2016), credited to Yussef Kamaal and awarded the Jazz FM Award for Revelation of the Year. Yussef Dayes then collaborates with Alfa Mist and Mansur Brown on "Love Is the Message" (2018), then Rocco Palladino and Charlie Stacey on "Duality " (2019), before crossing paths in the studio with multi-instrumentalist Tom Misch. Their musical understanding gives rise to the joint soul, jazz and electro album What Kinda Music (2020). After two live recordings, Welcome to the Hills as a trio (2020) and the EP The Yussef Dayes Experience Live at Joshua Tree (2022), the musician surrounded himself with a wide variety of collaborators, including his faithful accompanists, Shabaka Hutchings, Chronixx, Masego, Elijah Fox and Malik Venna, for his first solo album, Black Classical Music (2023), placed #4 on the US Billboard jazz chart on its release. In 2025, he teamed up with French producer FKJ aka French Kiwi Juice, for the album Live from the Greenhouse, released in limited edition vinyl format. The drummer also formed The Yussef Dayes Experience, which recorded the live albums Live at Joshua Tree (2022), Live from Malibu (2024) and Live from Mt. Fuji (2026), the latter featuring Japanese singer Minami Kizuki.