Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Got damn does his band kill it live! Listening to The Epic a few times did not prepare me.

got tix to see him at the montreal Jazz Fest, super pumped

Got damn does his band kill it live! Listening to The Epic a few times did not prepare me.

― davey, Tuesday, March 15, 2016 5:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah honestly i hope they are recording some dates over this last year's touring, would love a live album

i have really been getting into this album lately

surprisingly i am finding the vocal stuff to be some of the most engaging work on here.. henrietta, the malcom x song, cherokee

and clair de lune is so gorgeous, what an amazing piece

yeah, it's the vocal tracks I tend to turn to most. I usually hate vocal jazz, but those are the highlights. The Rhythm Changes is also gorgeous.

saw him last night

amazing show. first jazz show i've seen not at a jazz bar and also first fusion jazz show i've ever been to

only thing i didn't like was two drummers... they did some cool stuff with it but it was overall just dumb. plus it was at a big venue so obviously they mic'd the kick so it sounded beefy and cheezy as hell

Anybody go to the Central Park show? I thought about it, but ultimately didn't.

Going to see him tomorrow!

new EP the harmony of difference

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-kamasi-washingtons-expansive-winding-truth-from-new-ep-w476357

new song "truth"

digging it

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-kamasi-washingtons-expansive-winding-truth-from-new-ep-w476357

oops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtW1S5EbHgU

good stuff, guy't got style

guy's....

The Axelrod vibe that someone mentions upthread is very evident on Truth, I think. There's a Wrecking Crew feel to the playing; when the strings come in at about 9 min it could be a Glenn Campbell session.

new "EP" Harmony of Difference is out!
Sounds great so far

though it's funny this is an EP in today's bloated mindset, it's 6 songs including a 13+ minute epic and 31 minutes, that could easily be an old jazz LP

Truth is so brilliant and epic, definitely one of my favorite tracks of the year

yeah i really like this a lot and honestly with its brevity i could see throwing it on more often than the epic

Yeah this is a little closer to the live show, loving it

This did not get a happy review in the Graun: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/28/kamasi-washington-harmony-of-difference-review

I like the EP a lot; the short songs have a strong CTI/early '70s vibe to me - Hank Crawford, Stanley Turrentine, the good early Grover Washington Jr. albums, like that.

a series of vapid Kenny G numbers.

WRT to the Guardian piece, there should be a Godwin's Law for bringing up Kenny G in a jazz review IMO

like the minute you bring up Kenny G, it's a failure of writing and failure to really engage with anything or think about it, it's just an easy line

otm

unperson: otm wrt those 70s CTI records

man for a spiritual hat thread this got kind of fighty

I still like The Epic but have already played Harmony of Difference more often ... I'm really looking forward to seeing him tonight

You won't be disappointed. I've seen him twice, and both shows were A++.

Live he is so great
I'm totally with you on the new
In so many ways it just feels like a fat free distillation of what I liked about the Epic, and I think the production/engineering is way better

yes, mix is much clearer!

They were excellent, of course -- with seven players + one vocalist, their sound wasn't quite as dense as on the albums, but it was hotter, funkier, and louder than I expected ... Patrice Quinn is a force of nature

i still haven’t unwrapped my copy of “the epic”

i’m just always like ... three hours??

did they still have these guys?

both drummers, the one who looked like the weeknd and the older dude who looked like he should run a pizza by the slice place in Queens

I think I never checked out this year's album because I'm still digesting The Epic but, yeah, live show was fantastic.

the two drummers last night were Robert Miller and Ronald Bruner Jr. ... Kamasi introduced them with lengthy, funny stories about how he'd met the former in kindergarten and the latter at a third-grade birthday party

Kamasi's father Rickey Washington played on most numbers and had one soprano sax solo that really fired up the crowd

the warm family vibe was pretty amazing

yeah his dad was selling t-shirts at the show i was at, then jumped up on stage and played for some songs

I loved the live show I saw but was sad that the vocalist for some reason had been turned down to background levels during the last big song

I was such an epic dumbass on this thread

Was posting at a bar iirc

I'm not a Kamasi believer. Everything is exactly in the right place but I just don't get the jouissance from it. And I wonder if that 'exactly' is the point: it's too on the money, inhabiting all the right forms without the content. Truth feels like a lesson in how to make an epic: 13-minutes of telling, not showing. Maybe seeing them live is the key. But I think even then the dashikis would make me grumpy.

I know that's hardly an original take and who gives a shit anyway but it's that thing when you know everything's lined up for you to love something and for some reason it leaves you blank and that's what intrigues me.

how much of the silence over the new ep is cos its not on ninjatune.
suspect most people throwing love at EPIC got to hear it via their digital mailing list ?
i have had nothing in my inbox re the new ep at all.

it would be harder to market, no element of surprise, it's not 3 hours long, the cover is poor imo

but "Truth" is a great jam

Agree with everything Chinaski said.

Surprised by that Guardian review, I must admit: I think it's the only bad review for a contemporary jazz release I've ever seen them publish. They review one a week, after all.

I agree with Chinaski too but somehow Kamasi works as jazz junk food to me. Nowhere near as fulfilling as the jazzers of old but somehow not unpleasant to puton now and then

New album due on June 22. Press release here: https://www.normanrecords.com/press/index.php?item_id=170512

Two tracks from the new one are up on Spotify:

"Fists of Fury": https://open.spotify.com/track/1Etl6q0mmPV60TtOCD0uch?si=kn0fPwi7TC2tls18gSjtVA

"The Space Travelers Lullaby": https://open.spotify.com/track/3C9Zbwm1AxCMFDqvyuBQQj?si=d-VPyu59QkuU0nYL7Jyo9Q

I've only listened to "Fists of Fury" so far (each track is ~10 minutes long) but have already pre-ordered the 2CD set.

holy shit @ "Fists of Fury"

https://img0.etsystatic.com/196/0/16650390/il_340x270.1469520110_18v6.jpg

oh yeah fist of fury is amazing, totally different from his usual mode (but retaining a lot of his favorite harmonies and melodic flourishes, of course)

This is so great, and I wasn't that much of a fan of the last one.