Today, Goya Gumbani releases his debut studio album Warlord of the Weejuns via Ghostly International. The album, meticulously crafted by the London-based artist renowned for his distinctive style across both fashion and music, encapsulates the two dominating musical communities that Goya hails from: the rich hip-hop lineage of Brooklyn and his inventive multi-cultural generation of London jazz musicians. In both its title and spirit, Warlord of the Weejuns nods to Miles Davis, with Goya employing the same boundless ideology to his own work..
In celebration of the album, Goya is embarking on a run of tour dates with his band in the US, Europe, and the UK across March, April and May. Last week, he hosted a special album release event in London at The Standard, and will host another album release event in New York at MOCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Art) tomorrow night. Goya’s tour will see him play shows on the West Coast, including supporting Shigeto in LA, and across Europe and the UK in April before wrapping the tour with a headline show in Paris in May.
Warlord of the Weejuns is also an ode to the lasting impact that Miles Davis had on Goya, whose fervor for music and his ubiquitous style was formative for him. Goya channels that ambition on this new album, recorded with lush, full-band arrangements that utilize his own voice as part of the instrumentation. With Goya and his sharp, effortlessly smooth delivery leading the way as the album’s tone-setting conductor, he brings in a bevy of musical minds to lay a spacious, radiant collection of musical vignettes that invoke the wordless expressions of jazz and the meditative rhythms of reggae. Threads of affirmation, self-worth, and Black heritage — manifesting knowledge and power from within — run throughout Warlord of the Weejuns. Goya arranged his singular vision with production from Joe Armon-Jones, Swarvy, Franky Bones, Dan Diggers, Alejandro Śanchez, Maxwell Owin, Omari Jazz, Les Lockheart, xZalente and Ghostly labelmate quickly, quickly.
