Yussef Dayes' mum and dad bought him his first drum kit when he was just four, accompanied by a stern parental message for him to take his music seriously. His father knew what was at stake, as he had been a bass player himself in the competitive jazz scene of New York in the 1970s. Together with his bass-playing brother Kareem, Yussef jammed along for hours to their father's extensive jazz and reggae collection. At the age of ten, the talented youngster was already having lessons from former Miles Davis drummer Billy Cobham, an experience that he describes as groundbreaking. Equally influential were the grime and hip-hop influences of his south London school friends. Dayes became known as part of the band United Vibrations, and the energetic occasional duo Yussef Kamaal (with keyboardist Kamaal Williams). With his recent Yussef Dayes Experience, the versatile drummer mainly creates epic, dreamy soundscapes, sometimes applying mellow rhythms, and other times suddenly exploding into furious breakbeats.
