PORT: Black Classical Music

““I like being the bandleader,” Yussef Dayes tells me as the rain envelopes the leafy suburbs of south London where we meet. “But when you come to my show, I want you to be like, ‘Yussef was wicked, but Rocco Palladino killed it on the bass! Venna killed it on the saxophone!’ I’m all for that man, because I know in my heart, I can’t make this music without playing with the best.” In Dayes’ world, jazz music is the sum of its parts; instruments complement each other to create otherworldly moments of rhythmic bliss. Collaboration is the nascent heartbeat of this art, channelling creativity into music that transcends the genre itself. Dayes, a supreme drummer and musical polymath, lives and breathes this creed.”