Yussef Dayes

Son of a Jamaican bassist exiled in London, England, jazz drummer Yussef Dayes was born on December 12, 1993. Raised in a musical household, he was introduced to many styles of music as a child. His father gifted him a drum set when he was four years old, but he didn’t immerse himself into jazz music until he received drum lessons from Billy Cobham. When he was a teenager, he formed the group United Vibrations with his brothers Ahmad and Kareem plus saxophonist Wayne Francis. Affiliated with the new London jazz funk and electro scenes, they released the albums Galaxies Not Ghettos (2011) and The Myth of the Golden Radio (2016). Yussef Dayes’ chance meeting with DJ and producer Kamaal Williams resulted in the recording of the album Black Focus (2016), credited in the name of Yuseff Kamaal and awarded the Jazz FM Award for revelation of the year. Yussef Dayes then collaborates with Alfa Mist and Mansur Brown on the track “Love Is the Message” (2018), then with Rocco Palladino and Charlie Stacey on “Duality” (2019), before meeting multi-instrumentalist Tom Misch in the studio. Their musical collaboration resulted in the joint album What Kinda Music (2020). He then formed the Yussef Days Trio with bassist Rocco Palladino and keyboardist Charlie Stacey, releasing the album Welcome to the Hills in 2021. Two years later, Yusseff Dayes released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Black Classical Music, which featured guest appearances from Tom Misch, Chronixx, Masego, Shabaka Hutchings, Jahaan Sweet, and others.