Kamasi Washington‘s The Epic is the strongest jazz album of the year without a doubt. Clocking in at almost three hours, the album, like the artist behind it, is unconventional but tremendous. Signed to Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label, Washington creates jazz even as he roams amongst hip-hop colleagues, having appeared on albums from Kendrick Lamar and Thundercat for example.
A better recap will be up on PopMatters. And before that one of my images was featured on Dan Ouellette’s review over at ZealNYC, where he wrote, “Arguably not since Ornette Coleman left L.A. with his quartet in the late ‘50s to turn New York audiences onto his newfangled “free jazz” has a West Coast artist been so anticipated to finally arrive in the Gotham heart of jazz. While Washington may not make the profound impact that Ornette creatively foisted upon the jazz world, he will, judging by his first album and his fantastic showing at the Blue Note, continue to turn heads and open ears. As for significance, what he could do is introduce a new audience to jazz.” Follow the link above to read the rest and also check out the rest of my photos from Washington’s August 25th 8 pm set at Blue Note after the jump.
Kamasi Washington Tour Dates:
Sep 09 Bottom Lounge Chicago, IL
Sep 10 ICEHOUSE Minneapolis, MN
Sep 11 Slowdown Omaha, NE
Sep 13 Soda Bar San Diego, CA
Sep 16 Smith Center Las Vegas, NV
Sep 18 Harlow’s Sacramento, CA
Sep 19 The Warfield San Francisco, CA
Sep 24 Boulder Theater Boulder, CO
Sep 25 The State Room Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 15 BRIC HOUSE Brooklyn, NY
Oct 16 le poisson rouge New York, NY
Oct 24 SoulFest Sydney, Australia
Oct 25 SoulFest Melbourne, Australia
Oct 26 SoulFest Auckland, New Zealand
Nov 04 Bird Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nov 05 Bitterzoet Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nov 06 Gruenspan Hamburg, Germany
Nov 07 So What’s Next Festival Eindhoven, Netherlands
Nov 08 Kulturzentrum dasHaus Ludwigshafen Am Rhein, Germany
Nov 09 Locomotiv Bologna, Italy
Nov 10 Monk Club Rome, Italy
Nov 11 Tunnel Club Milano, Italy
Nov 13 The Lantern Bristol, United Kingdom
Nov 14 Barbican Theatre London, United Kingdom
Nov 15 Le Trabendo Paris, France
Nov 16 AB Club Brussels, Belgium
Nov 17 Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld Cologne, Germany
Nov 18 Unterfahrt Munich, Germany
Nov 21 Le Guess Who Festival Utrecht, Netherlands
Nov 22 Neue Heimat Berlin, Germany
Nov 23 DR Koncerthuset København S, Denmark
Nov 24 Nasjonal Jazzscene Oslo, Norway
Nov 25 Fasching Stockholm, Sweden
Nov 26 Nefertiti Gothenburg, Sweden
Nov 27 Folken Stavanger, Norway
Nov 28 Verftet Bergen, Norway
Nov 30 THE CIRCUS Helsinki, Finland
Dec 10 Club Nokia Los Angeles, CA
