44th Move/ Alfa Mist

Biography

Early Life

Alfa Mist (born Alfa Sekitoleko, c. 1991/1992) grew up in East Ham, Newham, East London, the son of a Ugandan mother. His early ambitions centered on football — he played for Torquay United's U-16 team — before his mother insisted he finish his studies at Langdon Academy and Newham Sixth Form College, where he completed three A-levels alongside a BTEC in music composition. His gateway to music was grime on local pirate radio, whose raw, urgent energy captivated him as a teenager. Around age 15 he began making beats in FL Studio, and it was through excavating the jazz samples used by hip-hop producers that he discovered jazz harmony. He taught himself piano entirely by ear, studying the recordings of Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, and Aaron Parks, deliberately avoiding formal tuition in pursuit of a personal sound.

Career

Alfa Mist released his debut collaborative EP Epoch (2014) with neo-soul vocalist Emmavie before issuing the solo Nocturne EP (2015), which featured early collaborators Tom Misch and Jordan Rakei and spread virally through SoundCloud. Around this time he, Misch, Rakei, and Barney Artist formed the Are We Live collective — a podcast and creative partnership that discussed music, culture, and the challenge of building independent audiences. His breakthrough full-length Antiphon (2017), self-released on his own Sekito Records, accumulated over ten million YouTube streams organically and established him as a leading voice in the UK contemporary jazz movement. Structuralism (2019) deepened his conceptual ambition, weaving recorded conversations with his sister about identity and the immigrant experience into the music. In 2020 he released the solo piano EP On My Ones and — under the alias 44th Move — a collaborative EP with drummer Richard Spaven on Black Acre Records. Signing to ANTI- Records (Epitaph), he issued Bring Backs (2021), which earned a MOBO Award nomination for Best Jazz Act. Variables (2023) was widely cited among the best jazz albums of that year, and Roulette (2025) expanded his reach with a dystopian sci-fi concept narrative. He has also collaborated with drummer Yussef Dayes and guitarist Mansur Brown, most notably on the Abbey Road live session "Love Is the Message" (2018).

Musical Style

Alfa Mist anchors his sound in warm Rhodes and piano voicings drawn from jazz harmony, layered over head-nodding hip-hop rhythms that betray his origins as a beatmaker. His compositions balance structured groove with space for improvisation, resulting in a lambent, melancholy atmosphere that critics have described as "subterranean" and "introspective." He employs selective rapping — treating his voice as one compositional color rather than a defining identity — alongside spoken-word passages and sampled conversation. His regular ensemble has included Johnny Woodham on trumpet, Kaya Thomas-Dyke on bass and vocals, and Mansur Brown on guitar. Later work incorporates smoky psychedelia and broader narrative arc, reflecting an ambition that pushes well beyond standard neo-soul or jazz-rap tropes. His self-taught approach, absorbing style directly from records by Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, Robert Glasper, Madlib, and J Dilla, gives his playing an unorthodox personal stamp untethered from conservatoire convention.

Legacy

Alfa Mist is a central figure in the post-2015 London jazz renaissance, alongside peers such as Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd. His debut full-length Antiphon demonstrated that thoughtful, artist-led jazz-adjacent music could build a large global audience through digital platforms alone, without major-label infrastructure. Bring Backs (2021) earned a MOBO Award nomination for Best Jazz Act, bringing wider recognition to his work. Crack Magazine placed Bring Backs among essential next-generation jazz records from the UK, and Variables (2023) received broad critical acclaim as one of the finest jazz releases of that year. Visual artist and bandmate Kaya Thomas-Dyke's hand-painted artwork on his album covers has created a distinctive and instantly recognizable aesthetic identity for his releases. His self-taught, genre-fluid approach — moving freely between jazz harmony, hip-hop production, neo-soul, and conceptual storytelling — has influenced a generation of UK producers seeking a path between electronic beatmaking and acoustic improvisation.

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Fun Facts

• Alfa Mist nearly became a professional footballer — he played for Torquay United's U-16 team before his mother insisted he complete his studies, an interruption that ultimately redirected his life toward music.
• He taught himself piano entirely by ear, playing along to records at home with no formal instruction. He has said he wanted 'the fastest path to find what I sound like,' deliberately choosing intuition over conservatoire training.
• His 2019 album Structuralism is built around recorded conversations between Alfa and his sister debating identity, societal structures, and the experience of growing up as children of Ugandan immigrants in East London — the conversations are woven directly into the music.
• His own record label is named Sekito Records — his own surname — which he used to self-release his early work and retain full creative control before signing to ANTI- Records for Bring Backs (2021).
• His 2025 concept album Roulette unfolds within a hand-crafted dystopian sci-fi universe complete with its own illustrated narrative arc, making it one of the most narratively ambitious releases in the contemporary UK jazz space.

Musical Connections

Collaborators

• Tom Misch - Longstanding creative partner and fellow Are We Live collective member. Misch appeared on Alfa Mist's debut solo EP Nocturne (2015) and the two have frequently supported each other's careers. (Nocturne EP (2015); Are We Live collective) [2015–present]
• Jordan Rakei - Fellow Are We Live collective member. Rakei and Alfa Mist shared early SoundCloud audiences and collaborated as part of the quartet that formed the nucleus of the UK nu-jazz scene. (Nocturne EP (2015); Are We Live collective) [2015–present]
• Barney Artist - Fourth member of the Are We Live collective alongside Alfa Mist, Tom Misch, and Jordan Rakei. The group ran a podcast discussing music, culture, and independent artistry. (Are We Live collective podcast) [2015–2018]
• Emmavie - Alfa Mist co-created the neo-soul debut EP Epoch (2014) with vocalist Emmavie, his earliest released collaborative work. (Epoch EP (2014))
• Yussef Dayes - Collaborated on the track 'Love Is the Message' (2018), which was performed live at Abbey Road Studios in a widely viewed session — one of the landmark recordings of the UK contemporary jazz moment. ('Love Is the Message' live at Abbey Road (2018))
• Mansur Brown - Guitarist who appears across Alfa Mist's live and studio work, including the Abbey Road 'Love Is the Message' session alongside Yussef Dayes. ('Love Is the Message' live at Abbey Road (2018)) [2018–present]
• Richard Spaven - Drummer and equal creative partner in the 44th Move duo project, which released a self-titled EP on Black Acre Records in 2020, straddling dancefloor and headphone listening. (44th Move EP (2020, Black Acre Records))
• Kaya Thomas-Dyke - Bassist and vocalist in Alfa Mist's regular live band who also painted the artwork for his album covers, making her central to both the music and the visual identity of his releases. (Bring Backs (2021), Variables (2023), Roulette (2025) — live performances and album artwork) [2019–present]

Supporting Musicians

• Johnny Woodham - Trumpeter and regular member of Alfa Mist's live and studio ensemble, contributing to the warm, layered horn textures across multiple releases. [2017–present]

Influences

• Ahmad Jamal - One of the key pianists Alfa Mist studied by ear when teaching himself jazz piano, with Jamal's rhythmic left-hand approach and harmonic economy shaping his keyboard style. [early 2010s]
• Aaron Parks - Alfa Mist has cited Aaron Parks alongside Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal as a formative piano influence he studied through recordings during his self-taught musical education. [early 2010s]
• Robert Glasper - Glasper's jazz-meets-hip-hop approach was a direct model for Alfa Mist as he transitioned from pure beatmaking into live-instrument jazz-inflected music. [early 2010s]
• Madlib - Madlib's sample-based hip-hop production exposed Alfa Mist to jazz source material, serving as a gateway that led him to study jazz harmony and eventually learn piano. [c. 2006–2012]
• J Dilla - J Dilla's rhythmic approach and jazz-sampling production were among the earliest musical influences that pointed Alfa Mist toward jazz, forming the foundation of his beat-making aesthetic. [c. 2006–2012]
• Hi-Tek - Hi-Tek was cited by Alfa Mist as one of the hip-hop producers whose jazz samples led him to discover and study the jazz canon. [c. 2006–2012]
• Herbie Hancock - Herbie Hancock's piano recordings were among those Alfa Mist studied by ear during his self-taught piano education, shaping his approach to jazz harmony and funk-influenced keyboard playing. [early 2010s]
• Talib Kweli - Alfa Mist has cited Talib Kweli's music as one of the hip-hop entry points through which he discovered jazz samples and began his self-education in jazz harmony. [c. 2006–2012]

Associated Artists

• Nubya Garcia - Scene contemporaries in the post-2015 London jazz renaissance. Both are regularly grouped together as defining voices of the UK contemporary jazz movement. [2017–present]
• Moses Boyd - Scene contemporary in the London jazz renaissance. Alfa Mist and Moses Boyd are frequently cited together as leading figures of the UK's nu-jazz moment. [2017–present]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia