Jamiroquai

The band's "Buffalo Man"[1] logo took inspiration from Native American culture.[2]

Jay Kay was sending songs to record companies, including a hip-hop single released in 1986 under the label StreetSounds.[3][2] During this time, Kay was influenced by Native American and First Nation peoples and their philosophies, and wrote "When You Gonna Learn", a song covering social issues.[2][4] When he had it studio-recorded, Kay fought with his producer who took out half the lyrics and produced the song based on what was charting.[2] With the track restored to his preference, the experience helped Kay realise he "wanted a proper live band with a proper live sound".[2] The band would be named "Jamiroquai", a blend of the words "jam" and the name of a Native American confederacy, the Iroquois.[4] He was signed to Acid Jazz Records in 1991 after he sent a demo tape of himself covering a song by the Brand New Heavies.[5][6][lower-alpha 1] Afterwards, he gradually gathered band members, including friend Wallis Buchanan who played the didgeridoo.[2] Kay's manager scouted keyboardist Toby Smith, but was rejected because he played in an acid house style which Kay disliked, so Smith compromised his playing to join the group again as Kay's songwriting partner. Their first song as collaborators was the anti-war song "Too Young to Die".[2][8] In 1992, Jamiroquai began their career by performing in the British club scene,[9] and released "When You Gonna Learn" as their debut single, charting outside the UK Top 50.[10] In the following year, Stuart Zender became the band's bassist by audition.[11][12]

After the success of "When You Gonna Learn", the band were offered major-label contracts and Kay signed a one-million-dollar, 8-album record deal with Sony Soho².[8][10][13] He was the only member under contract, but would share his royalties with his band members in accordance to their contributions.[13] Under Sony, the band released their debut album, Emergency on Planet Earth, where it entered the UK albums chart at number 1.[14] It was described by an AllMusic reviewer as "a psychedelic melange of tight funky rhythms, acid rock intimations, and '70s soul melodies".[15] The album's ecologically charged concept gave Kay press coverage,[16] although Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post opined that the record's "sloganeering is as crude as the music is slick".[17]

Jay Kay performing with Jamiroquai in the mid-1990s

The band's drummer, Nick van Gelder, was on holiday for longer than expected, and he was replaced by Derrick McKenzie, who recorded with the group in one take for his audition.[18] They issued their second album The Return of the Space Cowboy in 1994, and it ranked at number 2 in the UK chart.[19] During its recording, Kay was in a creative block worsened by his increasing drug use at the time.[18][20] The album's complex songwriting caused Sony to tell Jamiroquai that "none of [the tracks] sounded like singles",[18] Daryl Easlea of BBC Music however wrote that the record "capture[ed] this first phase of Jamiroquai at their very best".[19] Josef Woodard from Entertainment Weekly compared the album to Sly Stone and Rufus and further wrote that its "syncopated grooves and horn-lined riffs" were "played by humans, not samplers".[21]

Released in 1996, Travelling Without Moving reached number 24 in the Billboard 200[22] and number 2 in the UK albums chart.[23] With 8 million copies sold worldwide,[24] it listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling funk album in history.[25] Containing symphonic and jungle elements,[26] Kay aimed for an accessible sound unlike the previous record.[27] A review from Q magazine stated that Travelling Without Moving is "tighter and more compact in its production",[28] while critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that it did not have "the uniform consistency of its predecessor".[29] The album's lead single "Virtual Insanity" gained popularity for its music video, where it heavily played on MTV,[30] and won two Video Music Awards for Breakthrough Video and Video of the Year in 1997.[31] The song also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Performance By A Duo Or Group in 1998.[32]

While the group were preparing their fourth album, Synkronized (1999), Zender left Jamiroquai due to conflicts with Kay.[33] While Zender had not been involved in the album's songwriting, the group chose to scrap his recorded tracks to avoid lawsuits and Nick Fyffe was recruited for new sessions.[13][33] This resulted in what journalist Lisa Markwell thought was a "tighter, more angry collection of songs" for Synkronized,[13] while Prasad Bidaye of Exclaim! commented that "Canned Heat" and similar tracks "sound more like hi-NRG and house than acid jazz, while slower tempos on [others] ease the pressure for [Kay's] more romantic musings".[34] Nevertheless, Alex Young of Consequence of Sound argued that the departure of Zender changed the band's musical direction of "creating propulsive collections of [long] tunes, [and] speaking out against injustice".[35] The album ranked number 1 in the UK albums chart and number 28 in the US Billboard 200.[24][36] A year prior to Synkronized, "Deeper Underground" was released as a single for the Godzilla soundtrack and reached number one in the UK singles chart.[24]

Jamiroquai performing in Italy, 2003

The group issued their 2001 follow-up, A Funk Odyssey, a disco record that explored rock and Latin music influences.[37][38][39] It introduced guitarist Rob Harris, who helped write tracks such as "Corner of the Earth".[39] The album topped in the UK, and reached number 44 in the US Billboard 200.[40] A Funk Odyssey was released to generally mixed reviews,[41] with a Billboard magazine reviewer stating that the group "continues to mine a musical playing field that pays homage to [...] Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Chic",[42] and Mojo writing that the album "[succumbs] to unambitious disco stylings".[43] It was the last album to feature Smith, who left the band in the following year for paternal reasons.[44]

Their sixth album, Dynamite, was released in 2005, and reached number 3 in the UK,[45] Rashod D. Ollison of The Baltimore Sun wrote that the album "boasts a harder digital edge... With heavier beats, manipulated guitar lines and odd digital textures, Dynamite is less organic than Jamiroquai's other efforts".[46] Its tracks "Feels Just Like It Should" and "Love Blind" were characterised as "[having] a fatter, dirtier sound than usual".[47] In 2006, Kay's contract with Sony ended,[48] which lead to the issue of the band's greatest hits collection, High Times: Singles 1992–2006. It charted at number one in the UK after its first week of release.[36] The following year, Jamiroquai performed in the Gig in the Sky, a concert held on a private Boeing 757 in association with Sony Ericsson.[49] The group thus currently holds the Guinness World Record for "fastest concert", performed on the aircraft whilst travelling at 1017 km/h (632 mph).[50]

Jamiroquai performing in Warsaw, Poland, June 2011

Rock Dust Light Star was released in 2010 under Mercury Records, where it charted at number 7 in the UK.[51] Kay described the album as a "a real band record" that "[captures] the flow of our live performances".[52] Matt Collar commented in an AllMusic review that the group were "heading back to [their] rock and organic soul roots",[53] with a sound Thomas H. Green of The Telegraph termed as "Californian Seventies funk rock".[54]

Jamiroquai released Automaton in 2017, their eighth studio album and the first in seven years, reaching number 4 in the UK.[55] It was produced by Kay and band keyboardist Matt Johnson, and "has a heavy electronica influence, featuring retro synths, icy arpeggiated melodies, stompy house beats and bubbling basslines", according to a review from The New Zealand Herald.[56] Ryan B. Patrick said that the album "carefully balance[d] their signature sound with[…] EDM, soul and trap sounds".[57] By 2017, the group's line-up consisted of Kay, Harris, McKenzie, Johnson, Paul Turner on bass guitar, and percussionist Sola Akingbola.[58]

Jamiroquai is generally termed as acid-jazz,[59] funk,[60] disco,[61] soul,[16] house,[62] and R&B.[26] Their sound has been described by J.D. Considine as having an "anything-goes attitude, an approach that leaves the band open to anything".[63] David O'Donnell wrote that their 1993 debut album Emergency on Planet Earth "laid the foundations for an acid-jazz sound that the band would continue to build upon for the next decade and a half".[14] Their later work would utilise electronic sounds,[46][56][64] and by the release of Rock Dust Light Star (2010), "their sound continued to mutate towards areas of more plasticine funk and breezy disco", according to David Garber of Noisey.[58] Writing for Pitchfork, Steven J. Horowitz commented that "no band from the ’90s has stayed so true to [their] sound while modifying it in real time".[65]

Jay Kay is the primary songwriter of Jamiroquai. Despite his limited ability to play musical instruments, he sang melodies and beats for band members to transcribe to their instrumentation.[2] Lorraine Ali praised Kay for his "Motown-esque voice" while other critics described Toby Smith's keyboard arrangements as "psychedelic and soulful",[34] and compared Stuart Zender's bass playing to the work of Marcus Miller.[66] Wallis Buchanan on didgeridoo was met with either praise or annoyance from critics.[63][67][68][69]

Kay was influenced by Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock, Lou Donaldson, Grant Green,[26] Sly Stone, Gil Scott-Heron,[3] and hip-hop and its culture.[16] A 2003 compilation titled Late Night Tales: Jamiroquai under Azuli Records, also contains a selection of some of the band's late 1970s R&B, disco and quiet storm influences.[70] While Jamiroquai and Kay's vocals have drawn comparisons to Stevie Wonder,[lower-alpha 2] some critics accused the band of copying black artists.[13][71][72] Kay said that "we never tried to hide our influences",[71] and that he also referenced them in the band's music: "If you just sample Barry White or Sly Stone, that’s one thing; to get their spirit is different."[26]

Kay was said to take "fascination with the effect technology has both positively and negatively on our lives and on the planet", according to critic Matt Collar.[74] Additionally, Emergency on Planet Earth (1993) revolved around environmental awareness,[15][16] while The Return of the Space Cowboy (1994) contains themes of homelessness, Native American rights, youth protests, and slavery.[18][75][16] Richard Driver of PopMatters, said that the lyrics of Automaton (2017) allude to "dystopian films and the limitations of relationships built in a digital landscape".[76]

However, critics have said that the band had strayed from these beliefs, and focused on "having fun" rather than social justice,[39] and that Kay's interest in sports cars contradict his earlier beliefs.[1][13][3] Kay said in an interview with Muzik, that he was reluctant to release Travelling Without Moving (1996) as it adopted a motorcar concept,[lower-alpha 3] but added: "just because I love to drive a fast car, that doesn't mean I believe in [destroying the environment.]"[77] He also said in separate interviews that he was tired of being "[a] troubadour of social conscious",[16] and that "after a while you realise that people won't boogie and dance to [politics]."[13]

Jay Kay is known for his elaborate head-dresses.

Kay said that he prefers playing live to studio work.[8] According to Michael Mehle of Rocky Mountain News, "When the band formed in 1992, the group chose to emphasize real instruments with a big band rather than techno-gilded dance music that required antiseptic computers and synthesizers on stage".[33] In 1997, Robert Hilburn of The Los Angeles Times wrote: "Though the group's music leans a bit too much on identifiable '70s soul and funk strains, Kay himself brings a winning sense of individuality to his concerts, where he combines moves as fluid as Prince’s with a disarming sense of humor".[71] Chauncey Hollingsworth of the Chicago Tribune said in a 1995 concert review that "his ease in movement and vocal endurance was like a martial artist's".[78]

Kay stated that the group's visual aesthetics are important. He assumes creative control over the group's music videos, such as editing, performing his own stunts and ensuring that they all "[look] good after 10–15 years".[79] Their style was described as "sci-fi and futuristic" and by Kay as "a bit of ’70s old-school driver with a touch of ’70s B-boy thrown into it".[79][80] Jamiroquai's music video of "Virtual Insanity" made them "icons of the music-video format", according to Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic.[81] It was directed by Jonathan Glazer, and depicted Kay "perform[ing] in a room where the floors, walls and furniture all moved simultaneously."[82]

Kay has worn elaborate head-gear, some he designed himself.[71][83] In a 1993 interview with Melody Maker, he said that the head-gear gives him a spiritual power described by the Iroquois as "orenda".[8] The illuminating helmet that appears in the music video for "Automaton" was designed by Moritz Waldemeyer for Kay to control its lights and movements and to portray him as "an endangered species".[84] Kay additonally wore Native American head-dresses, which was met with criticism by the Indian Country Media Network, commenting that he had worn sacred regalia of the First Nations.[85]

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• Footman, Tim; Young, Mark C. (1 May 2001). Guinness World Records 2001. Guinness (Firm). New York: Bantam Books. p. 163. ISBN 0553583751. OCLC 46867195.
• Larkin, Colin (27 May 2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958.
• Thompson, Dave (2001). Funk. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780879306298.