NOTE: Portions of this story were originally published in May 2023.
Kamasi Washington exists on the cutting edge of jazz. He is the avant-garde, who along with a group of fellow visionaries, is setting the tone in the jazz world. Like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Washington’s music transcends what came before, pushing the genre’s needle forward.
I had the opportunity to speak with the Grammy-nominated saxophonist and Los Angeles native last year when he was touring in the area. A three-time veteran of the Newport Jazz Festival, Washington is headed back to Fort Adams this week for two sets, playing with his band on Friday, August 2, and returning as part of Dinner Party, a jazz power trio with Terrace Martin and Robert Glasper on Saturday, August 3.
In May, Washington released his latest album, Fearless Movement, a release that once again, sees him journeying to the edges of contemporary jazz. The critically acclaimed album features guests Brandon Coleman, Thundercat, and Andre 3000, who will also be appearing at Newport this summer.
“It’s always amazing,” he said of the festival. “We’ve played there three times; it’s such an iconic festival. Some of my favorite records are recorded live at Newport. It’s a surreal feeling to play those stages.”
How is playing a festival different than playing a traditional gig?
“The biggest difference between a festival and my own show is the amount of time we have to set up and play,” said Washington. Without the benefit of a complete soundcheck, “for a festival, sometimes you just got to stand up there and play. You have the mindset of ‘just go.’ I always try to make the music sound unique and special no matter where we are. Once we’re on the stage, the music takes over, no matter where we are,” he added.
In 2015, Washington released his first major album, The Epic, an ambitious ride through the jazz genre that ended up on numerous end-of-the-year “Top 10” lists. That same year, he was featured on Kendrick Lamar’s critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly. I asked him about the role of jazz in hip-hop and other genres.
“Jazz has been a part of hip-hop since its inception; the two forms have a lot in common,” he said. “Many artists that make hip-hop music have a great love for jazz and are attached to jazz. Kendrick Lamar opened the door for the musicians on his records to express themselves without limitations. He had a lot of jazz musicians working with him – the jazz elements in that record just came to the forefront.”
“People like Dre, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Nas, and so many hip hop artists have used jazz. Kendrick really let the musicians do whatever we wanted to do; he wanted us to add the fullness of our expression to the music and then he took that and turned it into something that allowed him to express himself to the fullest. It created a very beautiful, very lush, very full piece of art, and it definitely had a lot of jazz, not just me but people like Terrance Martin, Thundercat, Robert Glasper, and other musicians,” said Washington.
In additional to his own recording, Washington is also producing an album with Ami Taf Ra, a Moroccan musician and his partner who he recently toured with. “Her music is steeped in North African traditions along with more classic Arabic music. We met, and we found a very cool synergy between her musical expression and mine.”
The beauty of jazz and the nature of the genre are uncertain. I asked Washington about the meaning of jazz and its larger purpose in the world today. “Music is definitely meant to express the full range of all emotions—joy, happiness, sadness, pain; it can express all those things. The main thing with jazz is allowing it to be a free form of expression.”
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