Displaced Diaspora cover

Displaced Diaspora

Released

Displaced Diaspora is a collection of tracks that jazz drummer, producer and composer Boyd either played on or produced in 2014. It’s a marvellously varied album where you find hip hop and cutting-edge tuba-bottomed street jazz next to hectic improvisational jams like Frontline and early 70s Prestige funky jazz-style grooves like Axis Blue. Boyd is adept, expert even, at incorporating non-jazz like grime and afrobeats into his musical world, easily blurring musical genres with productions that reference the past while carving out a fresh approach. 

Plenty of top-level London players appear including sax/percussionist Kevin Haynes, Ezra Collective’s Joe Armon-Jones, Sons of Kemet tuba player Theon Cross and saxophonist Nubya Garcia, and while the no-holds-barred dancefloor destroyer Rye Lane Shuffle is the most well-known track here, it’s the splendidly buoyant, retro-yet-contemporary swing of Marooned in SE6 that gets my vote for album standout.

Harold Heath

Recommended by

Suggestions
Mysteries of the Revolution cover

Mysteries of the Revolution

Mysteries of the Revolution
Blume cover

Blume

Nérija
Stampede cover

Stampede

The Quantic Soul Orchestra
Trust cover

Trust

Robert Mitchell's Panacea
Combobulate cover

Combobulate

Michael Blake
Where the Streets Lead cover

Where the Streets Lead

Slowly Rolling Camera
The Return cover

The Return

Kamaal Williams