Friday, February 18, 2022

The Washington Post


So now that the new epoch is here, and all the music associated with this page is available in one place, we're gonna have a birthday bash for one of the newer jazz cats.

He is turning just 41 today!!!! Forty-one!!!!! I wanna be 41 for my next birthday, can I?

I've never covered him before, so he fits my new criteria of "haven't blogged them yet" and "isn't a here today, gone later today construct, manufactured by the forces of profit".

He's been a presence roughly since the beginning of Century 21 here, but didn't really record his first solo record proper until 2015.

I've heard him criticized for not being avant-garde enough (whatever the f that means), but I feel he transmits the whole history of African-American music through his stuff pretty effectively.

He may never play on a Super Bowl halftime show, but I dig the music of Kamasi Washington just the same, you know?

Take his first big record, The Epic. If there's a debut triple album that's more aptly titled, it doesn't come immediately to mind.

Kind of a cross between Max Roach's Lift Every Voice and Sing and Gary Bartz's Singerella -- with a side of Horace Silver-N-Voices tossed in for flavor -- this is that burning Pharoah Sanders kind of exalted feel, but with massed, wordless voices out of Judgment Day weaving through it throughout.

He debuted this record in 2015 at the Regent Theater in LA, and apparently the entire four-hour concert was recorded by the BBC. Only about 83 minutes of this incendiary history lesson has ever been broadcast, and that's what I've got for you all today, courtesy of a tremendous remaster by my friend Tom Phillips.


Kamasi Washington
Regent Theater
Los Angeles, California
5.4.2015

01 KW announcement
02 Askim
03 Miss Understanding
04 Seven Prayers 
05 Changing of the Guard
06 The Magnificent 7 
07 FM announcement

Total time: 1:23:31
disc break goes after Track 04

Kamasi Washington - saxophones 
Ryan Porter - trombone 
Dontae Winslow - trumpet
Cameron Graves - piano
Brandon Coleman - keyboards & electronics
Miles Mosley - bass
Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner - bass
Tony Austin - drums 
Ronald Bruner - drums 
Leon Mobley - percussion
Patrice Quinn - vocals

String and Choir Conductor - Miguel Atwood-Ferguson

Paul Cartwright - violin 
Tylana Renga - violin
Jim Simone - violin
Molly Rogers - viola
Andrea Witt - viola
Ginger Murphy - cello 
Artyom Manukyan - cello

Charles Jones, Dawn Norsleet, Mashica Winslow, Nia Andrews, Steven Wayne, Taylor Graves, Thalma de Freitas - vocals

merge of two master captures of two BBC FM broadcasts
remastered by Tom Phillips, December 2015
(performance date corrected by EN)
566 MB FLAC/February 2022 archive link


That's my story for today, accompanied by the most auspicious birthday wishes for Kamasi Washington... as well as the hope that you won't go missin' and dare to take a listen!--J.

10 comments:

  1. This is so great. Thank you! I remember stumbling upon an NPR broadcast on Youtube and being absolutely transfixed. The music is so stirring and omg, the band! Thundercat, Miles Mosley, Ryan Porter... we get trombone solos! I've avoided gatherings since covid but I feel like if KW came to town, I'd risk it all.

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  2. Hi Empaurer - the archive is great! I grabbed that 2016 Nov Mose Ellison show at last! Thnak you.

    Did you know the archive on Google Archive shows a name "J*** C****" beside every file?

    Jenn

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    Replies
    1. I didn't but I've no clue how to change that lol

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    2. OK I think I changed it rofl

      thx for the heads up

      everybody get ready for Tuesday... there will be Blood!

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  3. You did change it, nice work! Now when I look at it I think of Blind Willie Johnson

    "Nobodhi's Vault but Mine"

    :)

    hugs, Jenn

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