Omar and Kamaal Williams at whynow’s Radio Launch

A week ago today, whynow radio held its launch party at the iconic 100 Club with special performances from Omar and Kamaal Williams. Here’s how it went down.

‘I think the whole thing with the internet now, taking over,’ muses the legendary soul singer Omar, just hours before playing at whynow’s radio launch party, ‘is a cool thing in a sense that people can listen to music they want to listen to, and following on from that, people make music they want to make, and I think that’s a good thing because you get to experiment. 

‘The downside to that is there’s millions of ’em out there and there are so many good ones. I’m lucky I managed to make my name before that stuff happened. I don’t envy anyone trying to make music now because it’s hard.’

His words bear only a hint of irony, as he was soon to be performing alongside someone who is not only one of those more fresh emerging talents ‘making music now’, but also one who, amongst the throngs of aspiring artists, has already carved out for himself an enormous amount of respect: Kamaal Williams.

The pair seemed an unlikely duo – old versus new; the godfather of British neo-soul and a burgeoning star of the UK’s thriving jazz scene. But when sharing a stage for whynow’s event, their complementary talents proved to be a sensation – and provided the perfect tonic for the past eighteen months of next-to-no live music.

The pair seemed an unlikely duo – old versus new; the godfather of British neo-soul and a burgeoning star of the UK’s thriving jazz scene

Yet this isn’t the first time the pair have worked together. In September last year, they were both part of an ensemble of highly inventive minds, which also included Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Yussef Dayes (the last of whom Kamaal of course knows intimately through Yussef Kamaal, a scintillating jazz duo which rose to prominence in 2016 and bears both their names). 

This group helped devise Virgil Abloh’s Spring–Summer Fashion Show in Tokyo. And when brought back together for the launch, it was clear that the creative connection between Omar and Kamaal was still alive and kicking.

Kamaal Williams, with almost no warm-up with his fellow musicians, evidently hadn’t lost his spark on the keys; whilst Omar, playing shortly afterwards and not to be outdone (he’s a self-confessed ‘show-off at heart’), sang with a pent-up soulfulness that felt almost cleansing. 

Their performances made the radio launch – which itself was rescheduled owing to the abandonment of easing of lockdown restriction back in June – more than worth the wait.

This event, which brought together guests, contributors and members of the whynow family, was created to celebrate the conception of whynow radio, which, following its inception during the pandemic, has already gone on to host stars such as Sean Paul, Romash Ranganathan and Jaime Winstone. In addition, it now also boasts an impressive array of regular slots from the likes of Jaguar Skills, Jamie Rodigan and Beth Webb.

For Omar, the chance to rekindle his artform in front of a real crowd – least of all at the legendary 100 Club, where the very best have played – was a blissful experience.

‘I’ve missed live performances so much,’ he said, reminiscing over the last year and a half, prior to performing in front of a live audience for the first time since the pandemic. ‘I’ve done so many livestream things, where you perform in front of no one. I can still get on with it. But you need to hear that feedback and you need to feel that love and attention as well. And I think the audience loves it as well when you’re performing to them. So, it’s great to be back.

‘Music is a therapy for some people. So, to have that, and to have it live as well, there’s nothing quite like it,’ he paused, before breaking into a wry smile. ‘There’s nothing quite like this: that sounds like a song that.’

‘There’s Nothing Like This’ – dare I explain his joke? – was of course Omar’s breakout hit, which propelled his career. Released in 1990 on his debut album of the same name, the track has been a staple of British neo-soul and has put heavy heads to rest for decades with its smooth melody and Omar’s irresistible voice. 

‘A lot of people know me for that one,’ Omar says, ‘but if they start with that and then they move on to the others, then I’m happy with that as well.

‘You need to come up with the classics so that people can remember you somehow. That’s what I seem to have done. I just wanted it so that you hear four bars of music and boom, you know it’s Omar.’

It’s just this classic quality to his sound that has won for him not only a loving fanbase – many of whom he livestreamed to over the lockdown periods – but also the opportunity to perform with some of the greatest.

After seeing Stevie Wonder perform in 1992, for instance, Stevie told Omar that he loved his music and that he wanted to write his first number one. ‘I was like, man, you can write whatever you like – I don’t care where it goes. This is my hero, my idol. So, to actually get him in the studio was something quite magnanimous.’

The track would take a while to come into fruition, however. The first time they were due to record together, Stevie fell asleep (‘he doesn’t know what time of day it is; he just keeps going’). It would be another eight years until Omar, ‘out of the blue’, received a phone call from Stevie who, when asked to prove who he was, would sing down the phone to Omar. Before long, their collaboration was revived and the track ‘Feeling You’ was created.

For his next album, Omar’s been working with Paul Weller, which will ‘stretch the boundaries’, we’re told, though will ‘still be kept classic’. And so, wrapped within our interview and the event lies a thread of musical history: Omar meeting his idols and headlining with the rising stardom of Kamaal Williams.

Musical greatness being passed down the ages. There really is nothing like it.