Washington calls 'Fearless Movement' his dance album. “It’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music - expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”

Dance as an embodied form of expression signals a shift in focus for Washington. Where previous albums dealt with cosmic ideas and existential concepts, 'Fearless Movement' focuses in on the everyday, an exploration of life on earth. This change in scope is due in large part to the birth of Washington’s first child a few years ago.

“Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up,” says Washington. “My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality - realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”

The album features Washington’s daughter - who wrote the melody to 'Asha The First' during some of her first experimentations on the piano - as well as a host of collaborators new and old. André 3000 appears on flute, George Clinton lends his voice, as do BJ The Chicago Kid, Inglewood rapper D-Smoke and Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, the twin sons of West Coast legend Ras Kass. Washington further enlisted lifelong friends and collaborators Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat and more.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lesanu
2. Asha The First Featuring Thundercat, Taj Austin, Ras Austin
3. Computer Love Featuring Patrice Quinn, DJ Battlecat, Brandon Coleman
4. The Visionary Featuring Terrace Martin
5. Get Lit Featuring George Clinton
6. Dream State Featuring André 3000
7. Together Featuring BJ The Chicago Kid
8. The Garden Path
9. Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)
10. Road To Self (KO)
11. Lines In The Sand
12. Prologue

Kamasi Washington composed and produced the original score for Becoming, the four time Emmy-nominated film that provided an intimate glimpse into the life of Michelle Obama. Produced by Netflix Originals, Becoming documented a moment of profound change for the former First Lady, not only for her personally but for the country she and her husband served over eight impactful years in the White House. Washington, who joined the project in its embryonic stages, provides the powerful musical backdrop.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Shot Out Of A Cannon
2. Becoming
3. Take In The Story
4. Southside V.1
5. Dandy
6. The Rhythm Changes
7. Song For Fraser
8. Announcement

Side B
1. Detail
2. Fashion Then And Now
3. Provocation
4. Connections
5. Looking Forward
6. I Am Becoming
7. Southside V.2

The long-awaited follow up to Washington’s debut "The Epic", "Heaven & Earth" is comprised of two halves, which find Washington confronting quotidian realities with cosmic themes. A further investigation of Washington’s world building ideas, the new album explores his reckoning with current global chaos and his vision for the future.

Washington convened his band, The Next Step, as well as members of the long running collective The West Coast Get Down at Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the 16 tracks on Heaven & Earth. The music was composed, written and arranged by Washington, with new arrangements of jazz and bebop legend Freddie Hubbard’s “Hubtones” and iconic kung fu film theme “Fists of Fury,” as well as one song by bandmate Ryan Porter. Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Ronald Bruner, Jr., Cameron Graves, Brandon Coleman, Miles Mosley, Patrice Quinn, Tony Austin and many more contribute to the album.

Clocking in at two and a half colossal hours of music, "Heaven & Earth" is available on double deluxe CD and a four piece vinyl housed in bespoke double gatefold sleeve

“The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind.” This idea inspired me to make this album Heaven & Earth. The reality we experience is a mere creation of our consciousness, but our consciousness creates this reality based on those very same experiences. We are simultaneously the creators of our personal universe and creations of our personal universe. The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of. The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between.”
Kamasi Washington

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The man responsible for turning a younger generation of music lovers onto the passion and power of jazz returns with the bombastic brilliance of his sophomore LP. Seriously spiritual and surprisingly groovy, "Heaven & Earth" incorporates Marvin-esque soul, Old Testament intensity and soaring, searing solos into a breathtaking vision of jazz's next incarnation.

TRACK LISTING

Earth
1. Fists Of Fury
2. Can You Hear Him
3. Hub -Tones
4. Connections
5. Tiffakonkae
6. The Invincible Youth
7. Testify
8. One Of One

Heaven
1. The Space Travelers Lullaby
2. Vi Lua Vi Sol
3. Street Fighter Mas
4. Song For The Fallen
5. Journey
6. The Psalmnist
7. Show Us The Way
8. Will You Sing

Harmony of Difference premiered as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art 2017 Biennial alongside a film by A.G. Rojas and also featuring artwork by Kamasi Washington’s sister, Amani Washington. The new music is an original six part suite that explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as “counterpoint,” which Washington defines as “the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.” Beyond the artistic impulse to expand the possibilities within counterpoint, Washington wanted to create something that opened people’s minds to the gift of diversity.

Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition. “Truth,” the sixth movement, fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Echoing this fusion, Amani created five paintings focused on raw shapes and colors, each inspired by one of the first five movements of the suite. Amani then combined these paintings to create a sixth: an abstract depiction of a human face.

The film, directed by A.G. Rojas, brings the metaphoric ideas found in both the music and paintings to life. While still quite abstract, it focuses on the harmony found in people from South Central and East Los Angeles and shows the beauty in their differences.

TRACK LISTING

1. Desire
2. Humility
3. Knowledge
4. Perspective
5. Integrity
6. Truth

For his next release on Soundway Records, Los Angeles-based Dexter Story hooks up with long time friend and compatriot of music, the saxophonist, jazz composer, producer and band-leader Kamasi Washington.This is a record that no lover of Ethio-Jazz, Afro-Beat or Funk should be excused for not owning.  A fierce, rumbling electro Ethio-Funk groove provides the platform for an intense and powerful interplay between Washington on tenor sax and Todd Simon on trumpet. An instrumental cover version of Tilahun Gessesse's1970s cut of the same name, it's Story's homage to the  oppressed Oromo people of Southern Ethiopia. Backed on the flip by the one cut from Story's 'Wondem' long-player that did not make it to vinyl when the LP version was cut, Nia Andrew's sublime and atmospheric collaboration on Eastern Prayer will keep all those happy who
grumbled at its exclusion from wax first time around.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: Dexter Story and Kamasi lock into a deep Afro-funk groove on the A-side here, while the flip finds Dexter and Nia Andrews in soulful and spiritual mode.

The story begins with a man on high. He is an old man, a warrior, and the guardian to the gates of a city. Two miles below his mountainous perch, he observes a dojo, where a group of young men train night and day. Eventually, the old man expects a challenger to emerge. He hopes for the day of his destruction, for this is the cycle of life.

Finally the doors fly open and three young men burst forth to challenge the old master. The first man is quick, but not strong enough. The second is quick, and strong, but not wise enough. The third stands tall, and overtakes the master. The Changing of the Guard has at long last been achieved.

But then the old man wakes up. He looks down at the dojo and realizes he’s been daydreaming. The dojo below exists, but everyone in training is yet a child. By the time they grow old enough to challenge the old man, he has disappeared.

This is, in essence, both a true story and a carefully constructed musical daydream, one that will further unfold in a brazen release from young Los Angeles jazz giant, composer, and bandleader Kamasi Washington. 'The Epic' is unlike anything jazz has seen, and not just because it emanates from the boundary-defying Brainfeeder, which isn’t so much a label in the traditional sense as it is an unfurling experiment conducted by the underground producer Flying Lotus who has featured Washington on his albums 'Cosmogramma' and 'You’re Dead!'.

'The Epic' is a 172-minute, three-volume set that includes a 32-piece orchestra, a 20-person choir, and 17 songs overlaid with a compositional score written by Washington. Pulsing underneath is an otherworldly 10-piece band, each member of which is individually regarded as among the best young musicians on the planet - including bassist Thundercat and his brother, drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., bassist (yes, there are two) Miles Mosley, drummer Tony Austin (of course there are two), keyboard player Brandon Coleman, pianist Cameron Graves, and trombonist Ryan Porter. Patrice Quinn’s ethereal vocals round out the ensemble.

The band are all from Los Angeles, mostly South Central, and its members - who call themselves variously “The Next Step” and the “The West Coast Get Down” - have been congregating since they were barely teenagers in a backyard shack in Inglewood. Washington, 32, has known Bruner since he was two. The rest met, at various stages, by the time they were in high school. The hours they have put into the music, playing together and practicing alone, total cumulatively in the tens of thousands.

“Nothing compares to these guys,” says Barbara Sealy, the former West Coast director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, who has championed Kamasi and his compatriots from the beginning. “I challenge any group to go out on stage with them and see if they can keep up with it… Kamasi is at the top of his game, and only getting better.” “These young guys,” the rapper Common says, “remind me of why I love music.”

And the story 'The Epic' tells, without words but rather through some combination of magic, mastery, and sheer force of imagination, is the story of Kamasi Washington and the Next Step and their collective mission: to remove jazz from the shelf of relics and make it new, unexpected, and dangerous again. They seek to both honour and alter tradition: as 'The Epic'’s opening track announces, they are the “Changing of the Guard”. The sound can be felt like flames, sometimes waving in the coziness of a fireplace, in other moments sweeping everything around like a backdraft. But Kamasi is always in control of the burning.

TRACK LISTING

CD1 ‘Vol.1: The Plan’
Change Of The Guard
Askim
Isabelle
Final Thought
The Next Step
The Rhythm
Changes

CD2 ‘Vol.2: The Glorious Tale’
Miss Understanding
Leroy And Lanisha
Re Run
Seven Prayers
Henrietta Our Hero
The Magnificent 7

CD3 ‘Vol.3: The Historic
Repetition’
Re Run Home
Cherokee
Clair De Lune
Malcolm’s Theme
The Message