Saxophonist Kamasi Washington is one of the hottest new stars in jazz. Influenced by hip-hop, classical and R&B, Washington’s music exceeds any notions of what “jazz” music is. His first LP, The Epic, marked him as the younger generation’s torchbearer for progressive, improvisational music that would open the door for young audiences to experience music unlike anything they had heard before. That 2015 album was a 172-minute odyssey featuring his 10-piece band, The Next Step, and won numerous “best of” awards, including “Jazz Record of the Year” in the 2016 DownBeat Critics Poll and the inaugural American Music Prize. Washington’s second album, Heaven and Earth, was released earlier this year to critical acclaim, receiving a 4½-star review in DownBeat, http://downbeat.com/reviews/detail/heaven-and-earth.
Washington has been drawing vibrant, multi-ethnic and multi-generational crowds with tour stops at the world’s most prominent festivals such as Coachella, Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Bonnaroo and Primavera. He has also participated in cross-genre collaborations with influential artists like Kendrick Lamar, John Legend, Run the Jewels, and Ibeyi, as well as the creation of “Harmony of Difference,” a standalone multimedia installation during the prestigious 2017 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. He is also featured in the 2016 film, “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,” that has been aired widely on PBS, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/chasing-trane/.
Washington gave a sold-out concert at The Majestic last Fall and will return to Madison on Friday, 11/2/18, to perform at The Sylvee, https://www.thesylvee.com/events/kamasi-washington/, after an opening set by Butcher Brown, described as “an up-to-the minute throwback to the great progressive jazz bands of the 60s and 70s.”
