Jacob Banks
Lee Fields

In the mid-2000s, the young Jacob Banks, freshly arrived from his native Nigeria, spent his teenage years immersed in the multicultural atmosphere of working-class Birmingham, where he soon began crafting his own composite and syncretic musical identity from dubstep, jungle, reggae, soul and hip-hop, until countless open mics resulted in a personal idiom and him recording his first successful tracks. He now lends his warm, baritone voice, which is deep, sensual and intensely expressive, to the poetry of songs that are often melancholic and wonderfully enhanced by bold, sophisticated, minimalist arrangements, crafting truly original music by reinterpreting the African American heritage (ranging from ancestral gospel to the most contemporary manifestations of R&B) in the light of his cultural intertwining.

No one has remained indifferent in recent years to his infallible vocal charm and the production quality of his albums, not even the US rap icons who keenly sample his work - Dr. Dre, A$AP Rocky and Travis Scott to name but a few. Shining with the light of a thousand stars in his legendary suits, Lee writes and records with the same unshakable tenacity and continues to enhance his reputation, never slowing his pace. In early 2022, Lee Fields joined Gabe Roth, aka Bosco Mann, in the new Daptone studios in Riverside, California to record Sentimental Fool, a more southern-soul inspired album with hints of the blues - a style that resonates with the raw power and humanity of his voice and lyrics