Kamasi Washington: Blue Note NYC Photos
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.