Much has been made of Kamaal Williams, aka Henry Wu and one half of Yussef Kamaal, of his contributions to British jazz and of the seminal The Return album. With everyone now up to speed with the jazz standard-bearer (if you're still not familiar, Google is your friend), let's dive into his latest video, "New Heights".
Led by some skittish piano loops and a light-footed double bass, "New Heights" is Williams at his finest: his less-is-more approach is at its most distilled and his ability to rein in free-flowing instrumentation is at its sharpest. To begin with, our focus is kept solely on the music by honing the red-lit video on only one or two elements at a time — a close-up of Williams' face, a quick shot of his fingers dancing over the keys, or a sequence of silhouettes dancing and flickering in front of you.
It isn't long, however, before the main story kicks off and an intricately choreographed martial arts film unfolds to the galloping rhythms. As the pace of "New Heights" quickens, so do the two combatants as they dance around each other at increasingly impressive speeds.
Get powered up with the Greg Barnes-directed visuals at the top.
