A Night of Yussef Dayes at Blue Note
As someone who is open to all genres of music, I find that the minutes I spend listening to jazz are relatively low in comparison to RnB, rock, neo-soul and rap. So, when my partner offered me the opportunity to see London’s very own Yussef Dayes live at the newly opened Blue Note Jazz Club, I could not pass on the chance to put something new on my melodic menu.
The first of the live music venue chain opened in the early eighties in New York City, followed by eight others, before finally blessing London’s jazz scene this September, with its first show on the 21st headlined by pianist Robert Glasper.
The London venue has an immensely cool atmosphere. Staying true to the blue in its name; blue lights, blue carpets, and blue curtains guided us through the journey from St Martin’s Lane down to the main hall. Expecting to be seated at a table for two with my partner, we were instead led with another couple to a sharing table of six. We were instructed to sit facing our partners rather than beside them- a totally fine seating choice, but I love sitting beside my partner. However, this seating arrangement created the opportunity for conversation with fellow music lovers and a chance to make new connections, share interests and parts of our own lives. What first felt like an awkward game of ‘who will speak first?’ with a bit of ‘I feel like I can’t say anything in front of these strangers’ quickly turned into recommendations to other jazzy haunts and all-around good conversation.
Yussef Dayes is an amazing drummer and producer, known best for his 2023 album Black Classical Music, an album which reveals much about Dayes’s upbringing and home-grown love for jazz, drumming, and music at large. Accompanying Dayes were four other talented artists: Elijah Fox, Malik Venna, Rocco Palladino, and Alexander Bourt, all who made up the concomitant of keyboards, saxophone, bass, bongos and other percussions, with special guest vocalist Sid Sriram.
Having only heard very little of Dayes’s discography, I felt unprepared and a little out of my depth. I knew it would be good, but to experience it live and with my full attention given to the performers was completely different to listening to him as part of a background/study playlist. Two highlights were, ‘Turquoise Galaxy’, featured on Black Classical Music, and an unreleased single which featured Sriram’s vocals. The former is a piece dedicated to Dayes’s mother and an homage to his childhood where his love for drumming and jazz was ignited. Even without lyrics, the spacey energy of ‘Turquoise Galaxy’ was emphasised by Fox’s outer-worldly synths, an element on the song I was constantly drawn to. The unreleased song featuring Sid Sriram was insanely beautiful. The Carnatic artist’s vocals truly stunned me, an ethereal and soul-deep sound which was perfectly complemented by Dayes and the assemblage.
My experience at Blue Note was truly great. I met new people, gained a new appreciation for a genre I feel I’ve neglected, found new artists to obsess over, and now a new music venue to enjoy (as well as some others as recommended by my table group). I would recommend visiting Blue Note to anyone interested in jazz (of course!) but also, anyone up for trying something new.
Edited by Eva Lau-Johnston, Co-Music Editor
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