Jamiroquai

JAMIROQUAI

Formed: 1992, London, England

Members: Sola Akingbola, percussion (born Lagos, Nigeria, 1965); Nick Fyffe, bass (born Reading, England, 14 October 1972); Rob Harris, guitar (born Cambridgeshire, England, 27 August 1971); Matt Johnson, keyboards; Jason Kay, vocals (born Stretford, Manchester, England, 30 December 1969); Derrick McKenzie, drums (born Islington, North London, England, 27 March 1962). Former members: Wallis Buchanan, vibraphone (born 29 November 1965); Toby Smith, keyboards (born London, England, 29 October 1970); Nick Van Gelder, drums; Stuart Zender, bass (born Sheffield, England, 18 March 1974).

Genre: Rock, R&B

Best-selling album since 1990: Travelling without Moving (1996)

Hit songs since 1990: "Virtual Insanity," "Cosmic Girl"

With a celebrated, eye-popping promotional video for its hit "Virtual Insanity," the British band Jamiroquai fused modern sounds with a 1970s rhythm and blues vibe and gained international commercial attention.

The son of a jazz singer, John Kay spent his teenage years involved in petty crime, landing in jail on one occasion and almost losing his life in a stabbing incident. Kay turned to music as a refuge and conceived of a project called "Jamiroquai," the combination of "jam," the free-flowing musical style that he hoped to pursue, with "Iroquois," the name of a Native-American tribe. Kay's home demos attracted the attention of the Acid Jazz label in London, which subsequently issued a Jamiroquai single. Kay recruited several London-area musicians and launched a full-scale band in 1992; Jamiroquai's lineup would shift throughout the 1990s, though Kay would remain the focal point and de facto leader of the band.

Jamiroquai's first two albums, Emergency on Planet Earth (1993) and The Return of the Space Cowboy (1995), were sizable hits in Europe as well as in Japan. The albums established Jamiroquai's patented sound, with the band fusing 1970s funk and jazz with hip-hop rhythms and Kay crooning in a smooth, silky voice that hearkened to pop music icon Stevie Wonder.

Jamiroquai finally gained a foothold in America with the hit single "Virtual Insanity" from the album Travelling without Moving (1996). The midtempo "Virtual Insanity" grooves along effortlessly, giving Kay plenty of room to bob and weave in and out of the mix, at times tossing in stirring, soulful pleas for global change: "While we're livin' in oh, oh virtual insanity / Oh, this world, has got to change / 'Cos I just, I just can't keep going on." While critics and the listening public equally praised the band's music, "Virtual Insanity" garnered more attention for its promotional video. Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the video employs eye-popping special effects; as Kay sings and dances in front of the camera, the walls and floors of an all-white room rotate around him, making his dance moves seem to defy gravity. "Virtual Insanity" won MTV's Video of the Year Award in 1997 and introduced the band to completely new audiences.

Kay and his band waited three years before releasing a follow-up to Travelling without Moving, during which time original bass player Stuart Zender left to pursue other ventures. Synkronized, released in 1999, was a hit in Europe, but the band's absence from the spotlight in the intervening years stalled Jamiroquai's momentum in the United States; Synkronized quickly fell off the charts. A Funk Odyssey, released in 2001, suffered the same fate, despite critical plaudits for its adventurous sound.

Though one of pop's unique-sounding bands in the late 1990s, Jamiroquai's legacy remains its groundbreaking "Virtual Insanity" video.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Emergency on Planet Earth (Columbia Records, 1993); The Return of the Space Cowboy (Work Records, 1995); Travelling without Moving (Work Records, 1996); Synkronized (Work Records, 1999); A Funk Odyssey (Epic Records, 2001).

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