Kamasi Washington: jazz that new generations like

“Dream State” is a nearly nine-minute track Kamasi Washington and André 3000 they go through the curves of different moods, they play with music, with instruments, the saxophone and the flute, painting melodies in which it is permissible and recommended to get lost, pressing “play”. This is a new excerpt from “Fearless Movement”, out May 3rdWashington's new recording project, who explained: “'Dream State' is a celebration of life and the opportunity it gives us to explore new possibilities. We created this song together instantly as we improvised on the music we had made at the time. It was so exciting…”.

Washington, born in Los Angeles in 1981, is a saxophonist, composer and arranger who he attracted the spotlight by working on rapper Kendrick Lamar's album “To Pimp a Butterfly”.and then released his acclaimed and award-winning triple album “The Epic”. His contaminated jazz is managing to bring the new generations closer and passionate about the genre, thanks to the ability to dialogue with great contemporary artists, including several rappers, in a fresh and intelligent way. Kamasi Washington is cool today. 2015's “To Pimp a Butterfly,” in this sense, was the Trojan Horse: thanks to the jazzy sound on which Lamar's bars are inserted, the project, which has also become a symbol for this reason, has opened up and made us discover a world of extraordinary musicians, just as the rapper intended. “It was an honor to work on this song with one of my heroes, the great André 3000 – continued the saxophonist regarding the new track – and what an extraordinary experience we had with André 3000, Brandon Coleman, Tony Austin and Mono/Poly, gliding freely through this world of sound without knowing where we would end up…”.

What should we expect from a record like “Fearless Movement”? Washington called it his “dance album.” “Certainly not in the literal sense – he said – dance is movement and expression, and in a certain way it is the same as music: it allows you to express your spirit through your body. That's what this album pushes us to do.” For Washington this “physicality” is new. The disks previous ones moved on cosmic ideas and existential concepts, while “Fearless Movement” was nourished by everyday lifeof “an exploration of life on Earth”, underlined the musician. This change in scope was due in large part to the birth of Washington's first child. “Being a father means that the horizon of your life suddenly presents itself. My mortality became more evident to me, but also my immortality, realizing that my daughter will continue to live and see things that I will never see – said the artist – I had to and wanted to feel comfortable with this concept, all of that influenced the music I was making”.

The album features, among the collaborations, Washington's daughter, who wrote the melody of “Asha The First” during some of his first experiments on the piano, as well as a series of high-level musicians and artists: André 3000 on flute, George Clinton lends his voice to the project, as well as BJ The Chicago Kid, Inglewood rapper D-Smoke, Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, the twin sons of West Coast legend Ras Kass. Washington also enlisted longtime friends and collaborators: Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat and more. The album also contains “The Garden Path”, a song that the artist performed for the first time ever, making his late-night television debut, on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The October 3 toAuditorium Parco della musica – Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome, on October 4th at Alcatraz in Milan, on November 1st at the Estragon Club in Bologna: these are his Italian dates scheduled for 2024.