Love Is the Message - Yussef Dayes (Live at Abbey Road Studios) (2018)
A stunning, emotionally-charged live performance by four instrumentalists creating history together before their stardom — and probably my most watched YouTube video of the last decade
To interview superstar drummer Yussef Dayes for the Observer back in 2023 - after the release of his debut album Black Classical Music and ahead of his sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall - I met with him at a cafe in Honor Oak Park, south east London.
As torrential rain poured onto the tarmac outside, he explained how he grew up in a timber house built by his parents in nearby woodland called One Tree Hill. His mother was a yoga teacher and his father sold imported fruit and vegetables. They filled their light, airy home with musical instruments, encouraging their sons to learn and play them and often hosting live jams on weekends where artists of all ages could stop by to play.
As the youngest brother, Dayes would often be put on drums to hold a beat. The Dayes siblings eventually formed a band together called United Vibrations.
Then across the late-2010s Dayes started building a reputation as an artist in his own right. In 2018 he released Love Is the Message - a song dedicated to his late-mother, who had passed away in 2015 - with keyboardist Alfa Mist, electric guitar player Mansur Brown and bassist Rocco Palladino (who remains a core part of Dayes’s band).
Later that year, the quartet recorded another version of the song at Abbey Road Studios, releasing the filmed session on to YouTube.
“That was a dream team. There are different levels…I don’t just do things for the hype, I know when there is next level talent who I need to make music with,” Dayes told me about that song. "It was when I started to go my own way. It’s a good snapshot of that moment. They’re all incredible musicians.”
There are few, if any, music videos I have played more than this over the last decade. I listen to the song multiple times a week. If I am in doubt, I play it. If I need to escape, I play it. If I crave ease or comfort or joy, I play it.
It’s an emotional rollercoaster, with all four parts given space to speak on their own whilst still coming together with semi-improvised passion to make history, recorded when none were widely known stars like they are now.
Dayes has since made his live performance videos - often in epic outdoor settings - a core part of his artistic output.
I love all of it. But Love Is the Message will, I imagine, remain unbeatable.
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