Moses Boyd (born 30 April 1991) is a British jazz drummer, composer, record producer, bandleader and radio host. His debut solo studio album ''

Dark Matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...

'' (2020) was nominated for the

2020 Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

. In 2014, Boyd and saxophonist Binker Golding formed the duo Binker & Moses and released three consecutive albums, with accolades including one MOBO Award, two

Jazz FM Awards Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...

and a Parliamentary Jazz Award. In 2022, Binker & Moses released their fourth album, ''Feeding the Machine'', to critical acclaim. Boyd's self-titled jazz band Moses Boyd Exodus (also known as the Exodus) released several mixtapes in the mid-2010s and together have recorded most of Boyd's solo releases. The group consists of

Theon Cross Theon Cross is a British tuba player and composer. Background Born and raised in London to a Jamaican father and Saint Lucian mother, he began taking tenor horn lessons at the age of 8, then switched to tuba when he was in his mid-teens. He ...

(

tubist This is a list of tuba players with articles on Wikipedia. See also *Lists of musicians This is a list of lists of musicians. Genre The following are lists of musicians by style or music genre. 0–9 * List of 1970s Christian pop artist ...

), Artie Zaitz (guitarist), Binker Golding (saxophonist) and Nathaniel Cross (trombonist). Under his own label, Exodus Records, Boyd made his solo debut with the extended play ''Absolute Zero'' in 2017, and followed it up with ''Displaced Diaspora'' in 2018. He has additionally collaborated with musicians such as Beyoncé,

Little Simz Simbiatu "Simbi" Abisola Abiola Ajikawo (born 23 February 1994), better known by her stage name Little Simz, is a British rapper, singer and actress. She rose to prominence with the independent release of her first three albums; ''A Curious Tale ...

Lonnie Liston Smith Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of ...

Zara McFarlane Zara McFarlane is a British jazz/soul singer and songwriter, based in East London. In October 2014, McFarlane was awarded the title of "Best Jazz Act" at the MOBO Awards. She has had four albums released by Brownswood Recordings. Early life Zara ...

, Obongjayar, Ed Motta, Sons of Kemet,

Soweto Kinch Soweto Kinch (born 10 January 1978) is a British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper. Biography Born in 1978 in London, England, to a Barbadian father, playwright Don Kinch, and British-Jamaican actress Yvette Harris, Soweto Kinch began playin ...

Floating Points Sam Shepherd, known professionally as Floating Points, is a British electronic music producer, DJ, and musician. He is the founder of Pluto Records, co-founder of Eglo Records and leader of a 16-piece group called Floating Points Ensemble. Bi ...

Four Tet Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ( ...

and

Early life

Boyd was born and raised in the district of Catford in

south London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, ...

. He describes himself as a "second-generation

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

" with Dominican descent from his father and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

n descent from his mother. He attended Sedgehill School, which was where he began learning drums. Boyd claims that at one point he was taught drums by Bobby Worth. In 2016, he graduated from

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

with a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of presc ...

jazz drums Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion (predominantly the drum kit, which includes a variety of drums and cymbals) in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz fusion and 1980s-era Latin jazz. The techniques a ...

. While at Trinity Laban, he took part of the jazz education programme

Tomorrow's Warriors Tomorrow's Warriors is a jazz music education and artist development organisation that was co-founded in 1991 by Janine Irons and Gary Crosby, committed to championing diversity, inclusion and equality across the arts through jazz, with a spec ...

Other ventures

In addition to music, Boyd was a resident host throughout 2019 on

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...

. He also performed a few stints filling in for Gilles Peterson on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available on ...

in mid 2020.

Artistry and reception

Musical style

Boyd is popularly known for blending multiple genres into jazz to create various new sub-genres. He has been noted to perform and write in the styles of

nu-jazz Nu jazz (also known as jazztronica, or future jazz) is a genre of jazz and electronic music. The music blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, electronic music, and free improvisation.Definition from Sergey Chernov, June 7, ...

, and fusion, additionally incorporating elements of grime,

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and wester ...

and

broken beat Broken beat (sometimes referred to as "bruk") is an electronic dance music genre characterized by syncopated beats and tense rhythms, including staggered or punctuated snare beats and/or hand claps. It has been heavily influenced by styles such a ...

. Boyd has described his own music as "an extension of black music, the diaspora" that draws influence from

afrobeats Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing), or Afro-pop or Afro-fusion (or Afropop or Afrofusion), is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and ...

, soca,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

and jungle music.

Critical reception

Boyd is known as a prominent figure within the modern London jazz scene. He has been described by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' as "a

progenitor In genealogy, the progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; german: Stammvater or ''Ahnherr'') is the – sometimes legendary progenitor, legendary – founder of a family, Kinship, line of descent, clan or tribe, Nobility, noble house, or ethnic group. ...

of the current London jazz scene", and "a poster boy of the London jazz revival."

Influences

Boyd has cited

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

's ''

Kind of Blue ''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by C ...

'' and

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. D ...

's '' Boy in Da Corner'' as major influences. Boyd is closely associated with jazz personality and DJ Gilles Peterson, whom he cites as an influence in learning how to "use jazz in

club culture Clubbing (also known as club culture, related to raving) is the activity of visiting and gathering socially at nightclubs ( discotheques, discos or just clubs) and festivals. That includes socializing, listening to music, dancing, drinking alcoho ...

Discography

Studio albums

Collaborative albums

Extended plays

*''Absolute Zero'' (2017)

Mixtapes

* ''Footsteps Of Our Fathers'' (2015) *''Time and Space'' (2016)

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Guest appearances

Songwriting, production and performance credits

Adapted from

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

, Tidal, and

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Moses Living people 1991 births 21st-century English composers 21st-century drummers English jazz composers English jazz drummers British male jazz musicians Alumni of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Black British musicians BBC Radio 1Xtra presenters English people of Dominica descent English people of Jamaican descent 21st-century British male musicians 21st-century jazz composers Nu jazz musicians