Among the winners at the Ivors announced this week landing - in the Best Album category - was Black Classical Music written by Yussef Dayes, Rocco Palladino and Charlie Stacey. Representing a significant coup once again for the London jazz scene on a music biz roll since Ezra Collective won the Mercury last year, judges praised the Brownswood release for its ''narrative arc that propels the listener forward, using a modern lens to reframe the format of instrumental music.''

The title track was track of the week on marlbank back in September 2023. We wrote of the album at the time that the track was quite the tour de force from one of the most understandably hyped new generation drummers on the UK scene. But there is much more than maximalist groove which there is in plenty given the subtle melodic lines that interweave also indicated by what to us up to this point was Dayes' best release, The Yussef Dayes Experience Live at Joshua Tree. Tracks in this much fuller exposure to his ideas are often brief and often rely on sheer power but it's not just Dayes in the forcefield because bassist Rocco Palladino is formidable on the hazily unpeeling 'Tioga Pass,' one of the album's big highlights. Album guests included Shabaka Hutchings, Theon Cross and Tom Misch. Yussef Dayes, photo: Danika Magdelena