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
Do It Fluid cover

Do It Fluid

Various Artists
Amazon River cover

Amazon River

Hendrik Meurkens
Fancy Free cover

Fancy Free

Donald Byrd
Future JuJu cover

Future JuJu

Black Jazz Chronicles
Astral Signal cover

Astral Signal

Gene Harris
Antiphon cover

Antiphon

Alfa Mist
Mister Magic cover

Mister Magic

Grover Washington Jr.
Question and Answer cover

Question and Answer

Roy Haynes, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland