THROWBACK: Kamasi Washington -- The Epic: Review

Kamasi Washington -- The Epic

[Brainfeeder]

Kamasi Washington’s debut record The Epic, released in 2015, is an enchanting celebration of jazz music and humanity. The record infuses funk, hip hop, classical, rock, and pop into jazz to make an album that feels like a spiritual summation of American music in the last half-century. All throughout the album, there’s a comforting, larger than life feeling that swells and smolders like a living organism. Between the 30+ musicians, sounds clash together and resonate like communications with a higher being.

These are some hefty claims so I suggest you put on the first song “Change of the Guard” while you read this and maybe by the end you’ll be convinced on what I mean.

... Ok, you put the song on? Good, let’s get to it.

Kamasi Washington is a tenor saxophonist based out of Los Angeles who started playing instruments at a young age. Being the son of Ricky Washington, an underground jazz legend of the LA jazz scene, he was exposed to a musical household and it was no surprise that he would be attracted to music so early. Growing up, he also got exposed to jazz influences like Art Blakey and Wayne Shorter whose legendary legacies inspired him to write jazz music himself. Along with the jazz greats, Washington also listened to hip hop contemporaries like Dr. Dre who were pioneers in fusing the sounds of post-bop jazz with funk and hip hop.

In university, Washington studied ethnomusicology which caused him to view music from an intersectional perspective. It was here where he and his peers would really stretch their wings, performing regular gigs and building up chops on their instruments. With childhood friends Ronald Bruner and Thundercat, Washington and company would record the self-titled debut of Young Jazz Giants, starting a decade-long collaboration between them that would extend onto 2015’s The Epic.

In the ten years between Young Jazz Giants and The Epic, Washington wrote hundreds of songs, performing with various bands and building connections with various stars in the LA jazz scene. Although Washington had so much pent up energy and talent, he had yet to make an official studio release until 2015.

Finally signing to acquaintance Flying Lotus’s independent label Brainfeeder, Washington channeled ten years of prodigious songwriting, proficiency, and band chemistry into the most spectacular jazz debut record of the 2010’s. Released on May 5th, 2015, The Epic is a gargantuan three hour long masterpiece with a sound so warm and energetic, the album feels like a living breathing statement rather than just a record.

The grand story begins on disc 1: The Plan with “Change of the Guard”, (the song you’re hopefully listening to right now’. The jazzy piano chords lead right into the explosive horn melody led by Washington himself complete with rising strings and choirs. Sporadic drum fills from Ronald Bruner and wild horn improvisation breathe with life and contrast from the rhythmic consistency of the choirs, pianos, and strings. The choice to name the song “Change of the Guard”, acknowledges the legacies of the legends behind Washington but also to signal a new era of jazz fusion that incorporates more than any iteration of jazz fusion before it.

Disc 1 continues with more tracks that fulfill this warm, earthy feeling of rich timbres and humanistic improv with “Askim”, a piece with a melody less assertive than the opener but more compassionate. “The Next Step” channels the explosive energy of Washington’s band into dynamism, swaying from lofty peaks of volume to soft mutters from keyboards and saxophones. “The Rhythm Changes” closes out this disc and is one of the few songs with vocals on the record, provided by Patrice Quinn, whose articulate R&B voice perfectly fits the setting Washington paints.

Disc 2: The Glorious Tale is where the kinetic energy of the story really kicks into action with “Miss Understanding”, a high-octane piece of jazz fusing fiery post-bop grooves with warm timbres that wouldn’t be out of place on a Coltrane record. The epic scale of this track is astounding and definitely makes it another one of my favorites here. What am I even saying? Literally EVERY track here is a highlight.

“Leroy and Lanisha” is a lighthearted, bluesy tune so pleasant and beautiful, I can’t help but smile when listening to it. On “Seven Prayers”, Washington and company give their ode to cool jazz with this toned-down and meditative piece. “The Magnificent 7” is a confrontational but articulate shuffle in 7/4 that feels like the backing to some epic battle. I’m sure that’s exactly what Washington was going for as this song is more visual than any other song here. It’s warm and tender in parts but never drops the energy and pace it sets.

Disc 3: The Glorious Repetition begins with the hulking “Re Run Home”, a melodramatic piece of latin jazz fusion that trods along over this shuffle of hi-hats, shakers, and snare rolls. This is one of the many places on the record where Washington and company just get groovy as fuck with it and make you wanna tap your feet, nod your head, or get up and dance.

Washington then dives into a series of covers including Ray Noble’s legendary jazz standard “Cherokee” which is interpolated into a soulful skip along with warm organs and heartfelt lyrics performed by Quinn. Claude Debussy’s legendary “Clair De Lune” of his Suite Bergamasque is beautifully adapted into a larger-than-life lullaby that combines cool jazz, gospel vocals, and classical arrangement to make the best cover of this song there is out there.

The Epic closes on “The Message” which comes full circle and retells everything the album has said in this quote-on-quote “thesis statement”. It features solos from Washington, Thundercat, and Ronald Bruner as well as plenty of huge melody segments where the whole band is in harmony, firing on all cylinders.

The Epic is a statement on the state of jazz before and the state of jazz to come. The story (while not fully clear) is one of generational change: it’s time for the old guard to step down and for the young warriors to take up the torch. The beauty of the record is how it wears its influences joyfully (vocal jazz, cool jazz, post-bop, jazzfunk) and transforms them into something newer than ever before. Washington’s effort in completely engineering the timbre of this record paid off in an album that feels earthly, but sacred as well.

Maybe I’m overextending here but I can’t shake that feeling that this music gives me. The rising walls of choirs and cataclysmic rhythm section flourishes are genuinely breathtaking and resonate like nothing else I’ve heard before. Kamasi Washington sets out to start a jazz revolution with The Epic, turning over new stones while taking up the sword, and in the process, he made the most enjoyable and warm jazz album of the 2010’s.

Listen To: "Change of the Guard”

5/5.