Kamaal Williams

What does London sound like in the year 2023? What sounds characterise a city where dozens of cultures combine and many musical scenes, both old and new, clash? Can you break this down and convert it into sounds? Kamaal Williams (born Henry Wu) has been doing his best to realise this feat for over 15 years.  As a result of his Taiwanese roots, the Londoner was exposed, in heart and soul, to the diversity of the city from a young age, and learnt to appreciate the inherent value of these many cultures. From his father, he learnt to recognise jazz and, as a young pupil, he picked up drums and percussion in the orchestra. As a teenager, he immersed himself in the rich electronic underground scene in the British capital city and, when he began studying musical production and piano at university, his goal became clear; he was committed to adding a hefty dose of innovation to 'elite jazz’.

This goal only accelerated when he met young drummer Yussuf Dayes. In 2016, as Yussef Kamaal, they stunned the jazz world with the much-praised 'Black Focus’ and, along with other talents such as Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd,  were declared to be revolutionaries within a new flow of alternative jazz. The collaboration was intense and came to a swift end but, in 2018, Kamaal Williams returned on his own with 'The Return’, an album that was internationally praised for its mix of jazz, funk and acoustic instruments with synths and influences drawn from hiphop and UK garage. In 2020, he did it all over again with 'Wu Hen’ and he is set to release a successor in 2023. On this subject, he says that he 'would like to integrate more oriental sounds and melodic elements’. Live, this master producer and synth master and his band members start from the basics of the recorded songs but are mostly guided by the feeling of the evening and improvisation. Believe us when we say: it is a trip that you won’t want to miss.

Line-up:

Henry  William - keys
Marquinn Mason - sax
Preston Stephens - drums
Cenk Esen - keys