I love it when a track grabs me by the throat from the very first second. “Save Me” is one such song. The fact that it makes me wanna dance at the end of a ten-hour workday is even more impressive, especially when you factor in that I hate dancing.
If you enjoy artists who offer a fresh and invigorating take on jazz and funk, genres really vulnerable to overused and tired tropes, chances are you are probably familiar with the name Kamaal Williams. One half of the notorious and, unfortunately, short-lived duo Yussef Kamaal, he is the epitome of musical prodigy. Williams is an artist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, and it’s safe to say he balances all these roles in an impressively efficient manner. What’s more important than all of these things, however, is the fact that he has attitude towards music. And you can actually hear it in every second of “Save Me.”
The track is part of Williams’ latest album Wu Hen (2020). It’s also an indicative example of the beautiful stylistic, yet synchronized schizophrenia that permeates the sound of the whole LP. “Save Me” is a song that straight-out takes you by the feet and throws you in the groove, head-first, without a second of preparation or build-up! More than that, the swaggering bass line and the bouncing drums are just the beginning of what feels like a funky psychedelic trip. As clichéd as the following statement it, it’s something you can feel by trying it. Describing the track further than that would do nothing more than insult it.
It’s Kamaal Williams we are talking about, after all, and all expectations of conventionality are highly unsuitable. Just throw them off and you are in for something special!