Jazz Roots: The Hidden Lineage in My Spotify Library
# Jazz Roots: The Hidden Lineage in My Spotify Library
A Crate research session that started with a simple question โ what in my Spotify library connects to jazz? โ ended up mapping a 60-year influence chain that runs from Lagos to London to Los Angeles.
The Artists in Your Library With Jazz DNA
Digging through 168 saved tracks and top artists, six acts emerged as the clearest jazz nodes:
Kokoroko โ London 8-piece, Afrobeat/afro-jazz, 299K Last.fm listeners. Tags: jazz, afrobeat, British, afro-jazz.
Yussef Dayes โ London drummer, jazz fusion/funk. Co-founder of Yussef Kamaal. Tags: jazz, jazz fusion, funk.
BADBADNOTGOOD โ Toronto quartet. Jazz + hip-hop experimentalists. Tags: jazz, experimental, instrumental hip-hop.
Terrace Martin โ LA saxophonist/producer. Credits include Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. Tags: jazz, hip-hop, west coast.
Sa-Ra Creative Partners โ NY/LA collective. Funk, jazz, electronic. Similar to Roy Ayers.
Venna (with Yussef Dayes on "Eternal Reflections") โ bridging UK jazz and neo-soul across three tracks in the library.
The Influence Chain
Root Node: Fela Kuti (1938โ1997)
Lagos, Nigeria. Pioneer of Afrobeat โ the fusion of jazz, funk, highlife, and Yoruba music. 478K Last.fm listeners.
Fela -> Kokoroko (weight: 0.95) Kokoroko's entire sonic identity โ interlocking horns, polyrhythmic percussion, cyclical groove structures โ comes directly from Fela's Africa 70 template. Sheila Maurice-Grey and the band have cited this influence explicitly.
Root Node: Herbie Hancock (1940โpresent)
Chicago. From Blue Note hard-bop to electric funk (Head Hunters, 1973) to hip-hop's "Rockit" (1983). 528K listeners.
Herbie Hancock -> BADBADNOTGOOD (weight: 0.85) BBNG's jazz-meets-hip-hop formula draws directly from Hancock's fusion period โ the Rhodes-heavy groove of Head Hunters is audible in every BBNG arrangement.
[music] Root Node: Roy Ayers (1940โpresent)
Los Angeles. Jazz vibraphonist. One of hip-hop's most-sampled artists. Everybody Loves the Sunshine (1976).
Roy Ayers -> Sa-Ra Creative Partners (weight: 0.80) Roy Ayers appears in Sa-Ra's Last.fm similar artists cloud. Sa-Ra's warm jazz-funk electronic palette sits in direct lineage from Ayers' Polydor period.
Bridge Node: Robert Glasper (1978โpresent)
Houston. Architect of jazz's 21st-century hip-hop pivot. Black Radio (2012). Both he and Terrace Martin played on Kendrick's To Pimp a Butterfly.
Robert Glasper <-> Terrace Martin (weight: 0.72, mutual) Both appear in each other's Last.fm similar clouds. Both bridge jazz conservatory training with hip-hop production instincts.
Scene Node: Yussef Kamaal -> Yussef Dayes
London. Black Focus (2016, Brownswood) crystallised the South London jazz scene. Yussef Dayes went solo; his "Eternal Reflections" is in the library via Venna's MALIK (2025).
The Full Chain
Fela Kuti (1938) โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ-> Kokoroko (2014) Herbie Hancock (1940) โโโโโโ-> Robert Glasper (1978) โโโ-> BADBADNOTGOOD โโโ-> Terrace Martin (1980) Roy Ayers (1940) โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ-> Sa-Ra Creative Partners Yussef Kamaal (2014) โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ-> Yussef Dayes (solo, 2021)
The Playlist
17 tracks. 60 years. All jazz. Listen on Spotify ->
Research by Crate.














