The epic

Description

The first monumental work by the American saxophonist. If you don’t know the name KAMASI WASHINGTON, you have certainly heard his work with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, SnoopDogg, George Duke, Heavy D, Stanley Clark, Quantic or more recently with his friend Flying Lotus (on You're Dead) or Kendrick Lamar (on To Pimp AButterfly). Composer and multi-instrumentalist at 33, KAMASI WASHINGTON leads on The Epic - a debut album of nearly three hours, divided into three suites - a 32-piece orchestra and a 20-voice choir. Accompanied by his longtime band, The Next Step/The West Coast Get Down, made up of ten musicians from Los Angeles (including bassist Thundercat, trombonist Ryan Porter and pianist Cameron Graves...), WASHINGTON offers both a tribute to the jazz of his elders Coltrane, Coleman and Ayler and experiments to push its boundaries, in the image of what his labelmates do with funk, hip-hop and electronic music. Flying Lotus, Coltrane’s grand-nephew and chief experimenter, was not mistaken, offering KAMASI WASHINGTON a luxury platform for his jazz research. "It is difficult to find new voices in jazz today," admits the head of Brainfeeder. "Many musicians play the same thing, I can’t stand hearing pale copies of My Favorite Things; what I hear on The Epic is the music of a great composer." Kamasi Washington and his dectet are indeed the actors of a contemporary jazz and a unique musical language. - FIP