About Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai are an English acid jazz and funk band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in their early releases and later drew from rock, disco, electronic and Latin music genres. Lyrically, the group has addressed social and environmental justice. Kay has remained as the only original member through several line-up changes.
The band made their debut under Acid Jazz Records but subsequently found mainstream success under Sony. While under this label, three of their albums have charted at number one in the UK, including Emergency on Planet Earth , Synkronized , A Funk Odyssey , and the band's single, "Deeper Underground" .
As of 2017, Jamiroquai had sold more than 26 million albums worldwide. Their third album, Travelling Without Moving , received a Guinness World Record as the best-selling funk album in history. The music video for its second single, "Virtual Insanity", also contributed to the band's success. The song was named Video of the Year at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards and earned the band a Grammy Award in 1998.
Jay Kay was sending songs to record companies, including a hip-hop single released in 1986 under the label StreetSounds. During this time, Kay was influenced by Native American and First Nation peoples and their philosophies; this led to the creation of "When You Gonna Learn", a song covering social issues. After he had it recorded, Kay fought with his producer, who took out half of the lyrics and produced the song based on what was charting at the time. With the track restored to his preference, the experience helped Kay realise he "wanted a proper live band with a proper live sound". The band would be named "Jamiroquai", a portmanteau of the words "jam" and the name of a Native American confederacy, the Iroquois. 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. Kay gradually gathered band members, including Wallis Buchanan, who played the didgeridoo. Kay's manager scouted keyboardist Toby Smith, who joined the group as Kay's songwriting partner. In 1992, Jamiroquai began their career by performing in the British club scene. They released "When You Gonna Learn" as their debut single, charting outside the UK Top 50 on its initial release. In the following year, Stuart Zender became the band's bassist by audition.
After the success of "When You Gonna Learn", the band were offered major-label contracts. Kay signed a one-million-dollar, eight-album record deal with Sony Soho2. He was the only member under contract, but he would share his royalties with his band members in accordance to their contributions as musicians. Their label for US releases would be under the Work Group. The band released their debut album, Emergency on Planet Earth, where it entered the UK albums chart at number 1. Kevin L. Carter of The Philadelphia Inquirer commented that the album "is full of upbeat, multi-hued pop tunes based heavily in acid jazz, '70s fusion, funk and soul, reggae and world music". With it, the band would continue to build upon their acid-jazz sounds in the following years. The album's ecologically charged concept gave Kay press coverage, although Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post found the record's sloganeering "as crude as the music is slick".
The band's original drummer, Nick van Gelder, was replaced in 1993 by Derrick McKenzie, who recorded with the group in one take for his audition. They issued their second album, The Return of the Space Cowboy, in 1994, and it ranked at number 2 in the UK chart. During its recording, Kay was in a creative block, worsened by his increasing drug use at the time, which resulted in its complex songwriting. However, the record was said to have "capture this first phase of Jamiroquai at their very best", according to Daryl Easlea of BBC Music. Josef Woodard from Entertainment Weekly wrote that its "syncopated grooves and horn-lined riffs" were "played by humans, not samplers".
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