Measure for Measure | 01

A set built on drums, from Yussef Dayes’s polyrhythms to Max Roach’s solo and Robert Glasper’s Dilla tribute. Time feel and low-end bass lead the way through cinematic jazz, jazz-funk, and contemporary beat craft, ending with the Polish jazz sampling masterwork of Skalpel’s “Sculpture”.

"Rhythms of Xango (Live at Joshua Tree)" - Yussef Dayes

"Spiritual Wind" - Galathéa

"That's How I Feel" - Jiro Inagaki

"Reaching For The Highest Pleasure" - Roy Ayers

"Nardis" - Bill Evans

"The Drum Also Waltzes" - Max Roach

"Dillatude #2" - Robert Glasper Experiment

"Diabolus" - The Cinematic Orchestra

"Marejeo Ya Bakari" - Buddy Sativa

"Douce Amertume" - Qiwu

"Microphone Mathematics" - Fred

"Sculpture" - Skalpel

"Rhythms of Xango (Live at Joshua Tree)" — Yussef Dayes

Cut from Dayes' "Live at Joshua Tree" session, recorded in the high desert in collaboration with Soulection and issued through Brownswood Recordings in 2022, the piece features Venna on sax, Rocco Palladino on bass, Elijah Fox on keys, and Alexander Bourt on percussion. The title nods to Xangô, the Yoruba orisha associated with thunder, lightning and drumming, a reference that fits Dayes' polyrhythmic focus.

"Spiritual Wind" — Galathéa

Galathéa is the project of Sicilian DJ and producer Massimo Napoli. "Spiritual Wind" appears on his 2021 self-titled debut for Space Echo Records, a set that draws on Mediterranean, North African, and spiritual jazz cues with live players including Salvo Dub on bass and keys, Gendrickson Mena on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Mario Pappalardo on piano. Rhythm Passport places Napoli in a line of Italian crate-diggers updating jazz-funk rhythms for contemporary downtempo sets, sailing the soundwaves between Italy, the Maghreb, and Greece.

"That's How I Feel" — Jiro Inagaki

Japan's premier jazz-funk bandleader Jiro Inagaki cut "That's How I Feel" on the 1973 LP In The Groove, with arrangements credited to his longtime collaborator Norio Maeda. The tune originates with The Crusaders, written by tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and first appearing during the group's electric turn on Crusaders 1, which also brought in session heavyweights Larry Carlton, David T. Walker, and Chuck Rainey. Inagaki's version is built on Fender Rhodes, electric bass, and tight guitar lines, openly acknowledged as a response to the Crusaders at a moment when Soul Media was pushing further into a fusion of jazz, rock, and funk.

"Reaching For The Highest Pleasure" — Roy Ayers

First circulated from Roy's Virgin Ubiquity studio tape cache as a 1977 recording championed by Gilles Peterson, the track surfaced officially via BBE as a 2020 digital single, then paired in 2022 on a 10 inch with Pépé Bradock's mix of "I Am Your Mind Part 2." The longer take offered an extended vibraphone solo atop a tight, circular bassline, showcasing the more spiritual side of Roy's jazz-funk. Pete Adarkwah of BBE was the one who tracked down the reels and brought them to Roy to be mastered. Roy passed in March 2025 at 84, leaving the Bandcamp page as one of many quiet repositories of his late catalog.

"Nardis" — Bill Evans

Written in 1958 by Miles Davis for Cannonball Adderley's Portrait of Cannonball session, "Nardis" was famously never recorded by Davis himself, and Adderley played it only that once. The piece came to be associated with pianist Bill Evans, who appeared on the original 1958 Cannonball date and returned to "Nardis" again and again across his life. The first trio version, with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, appears on Explorations, recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York on February 2, 1961. Authorship has long been quietly contested. Pianist Richie Beirach has made the case that Evans wrote it himself, citing its piano-centric construction and harmonic sophistication, then conceded the argument rests on a gut feeling. Either way, every late-period Evans set tended to close with it.

"The Drum Also Waltzes" — Max Roach

Roach introduced this 3/4 solo feature on the Drums Unlimited sessions of October 1965, with Arif Mardin supervising and Tom Dowd among the engineers at Atlantic. The piece sits over a one-bar foot ostinato that barely changes for the entire performance, while the hands construct a narrative of rolls and motifs. The motif is so portable that John Bonham quoted it at the opening of his "Moby Dick" solo at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970, and the title later anchored the 2023 American Masters documentary on Roach directed by Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro.

"Dillalude #2" — Robert Glasper Experiment

Glasper's live Dilla tributes evolved into recorded interludes across the Black Radio releases. "Dillalude #2" closes Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP, released in October 2012 as a companion to Black Radio, which won the 2013 Grammy for Best R&B Album. The nine-minute piece moves through interpretations of "E=MC2" and "The Light," with Chris Dave on drums showing how a band can sit inside Dilla's time feel without flattening it. Glasper told Life+Times the Dilla material was actually tracked during the original Black Radio sessions and held back, then folded into the remix EP and later the 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition on Blue Note in 2022.

"Diabolus" — The Cinematic Orchestra

Smoky dark room jazz for crate diggers. "Diabolus" first surfaced as a Ninja Tune 12 inch in 1998, then closed the debut album Motion in September 1999. The cut captures Jason Swinscoe's early process: gather sample-born motifs, have live players learn and expand them, then re-edit the results back into the mix. The band on the date included saxophonist Tom Chant, bassist Phil France, and drummer Daniel Howard, with Swinscoe sequencing and producing. The piece moves from brooding chordal clusters into wide-open string and harp passages, and famously folds in a slice of Buddy Rich's "Diabolus" inside its own architecture.

"Marejeo Ya Bakari" — Buddy Sativa

The Parisian beatmaker's Deus Ex Machina on Favorite Recordings is largely a one-man band exercise, with Sativa playing or programming bass, drums, vibraphone, flute, and percussion himself. Samples were proscribed across the album with one stated exception: the label notes explain that "Marejeo Ya Bakari" draws bass and other elements from "Indigo" on The Pyramids' 1973 LP Lalibela, and translate the Swahili title as "The Return of Bakari." Gilles Peterson playlisted two cuts off the record on release, and a separate session with Onra closed the project in pure improvisational form.

"Douce Amertume" — Qiwu

French beatmaker Qiwu's "Douce Amertume" appears on the 2011 album Travelling Arrière, pairing MPC-style chops with modal chords and brushed-drum programming. The track title translates to "sweet bitterness," which fits the palette of feathered drums, minor-key boards, and expansive headphone detail. Qiwu's work threads jazz, electronic, world, and 90s hip-hop influences in a way that places him alongside the French beat scene of the period.

"Microphone Mathematics" — Fred

Lisbon drummer Frederico "Fred" Ferreira's ensemble pays live homage to Madlib on Series Vol. 1 – Madlib, released in 2022 on Mad About Records. The conceit: take what Madlib made from sampling jazz, and translate it back into new jazz. The band features Eduardo Cardinho on vibraphone, Márcio Augusto on bass, Karlos Rotsen on piano, and Tomás Marques on saxophone, with the project carrying Madlib's blessing per the label rollout. Their version of "Microphone Mathematics" extends the Quasimoto single into vibraphone and horn interplay. The original sat on the Stones Throw 12 inch from 1999 and then on Quasimoto's The Unseen in June 2000, the foundational record that drew a bright line between Madlib's Lord Quas alter ego and his crate alchemy.

"Sculpture" — Skalpel

Wrocław duo Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło built "Sculpture" for their acclaimed 2004 self-titled debut LP on Ninja Tune. Sourcing from deep crates of Eastern European jazz including Krzysztof Komeda, Tomasz Stanko, and the Novi Sisters, Skalpel made their method plain: exquisitely sourced samples, re-cut with hip-hop precision and arranged like chamber pieces. The pair came to Ninja Tune through DJ Vadim, who heard their Polish Jazz demo while touring Eastern Europe and passed it along. A fitting finale.

Listen to: Measure for Measure | 02