Home » Jazz Articles » Kamasi Washington

Jazz Articles about Kamasi Washington

About Kamasi Washington

Album Review

Throttle Elevator Music: Final Floor

Read "Final Floor" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 30, 2021

Final Floor marks the last stop of a band that one might say never really was. Throttle Elevator Music was the name given to a jazz-punk studio cooperative project organized and operating from 2011 through 2017 around saxophonist Kamasi Washington, drummer Mike Hughes (aka “Lumpy") and composer and guitarist Gregory Howe. Howe also founded and serves as producer and engineer for Wide Hive Records, the label that recorded and distributed their music. He notes on the back jacket ...

Radio & Podcasts

West Coast Get Down: Kamasi Washington, Cameron Graves, Throttle Elevator Music

by Russell Perry
October 27, 2020

In the past several years, a suite of players have emerged from Los Angeles, many of whom grew up together, loosely connected by the name West Coast Get Down. The most visible player in this scene is Kamasi Washington from a jazz perspective, but Stephen “Thundercat" Bruner and Miles Mosley have made significant records in a pop and R'n'B vein. Composer and pianist Cameron Graves anchors Washington's releases and has become known as a significant artist through his own release. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Highlights of the Final Decade of the First 100 Years of Recorded Jazz (2011 - 2018)

by Russell Perry
July 21, 2020

This is the last of a series of five programs featuring jazz since 1990, presented as a single selection for each year to reflect trends, career highlights and new artists, at least as the narrative appears from the temporally-challenged context of the last 25 years. The idea to attempt such an abbreviated one-track--per-year survey comes from a terrific essay from critic Gary Giddins, “Postwar Jazz: An Arbitrary Roadmap (1945--2001)." As we approach the present our perspective gets more-and-more limited. In ...

Album Review

Throttle Elevator Music: Emergency Exit

Read "Emergency Exit" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 1, 2020

The sub-genre of “punk jazz" has existed—on paper— since the 1970s when Patti Smith proposed a collaboration with Ornette Coleman. That partnership did not materialize. When all the moving pieces are pulled together there is little substance to suggest that the category ever shared specific practices or conventions. Then, in 2012, Throttle Elevator Music emerged with their self-titled debut (Wide Hive Records). The original group was a trio posing as a quintet. Drums and guitars were manned by Mike “Lumpy" ...

Album Review

Thundercat: It Is What It Is

Read "It Is What It Is" reviewed by John Bricker

by John Bricker
May 2, 2020

If you're looking for some dreamy neo-soul and jazz fusion with a charming sense of humor, no one can satisfy you like Thundercat. Released on April 3, his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is, demonstrates his seemingly limitless confidence and charm as a singer, songwriter and bassist, delivering a solid crop of gorgeous and personal songs. After releasing two acclaimed solo albums and playing some incredible features for artists like Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino, Stephen ...

In Pictures

Kamasi Washington at the NorVa

by Mark Robbins
March 16, 2020

Kamasi Washington credits his father, jazz saxophonist Ricky Washington, with his success in the music world. The two stood side by side on the stage of The NorVa in Norfolk, Va fronting the rest of Kamasi's band. Washington came to the forefront with the masterful 2015 album The Epic a combination of R&B, hip-hop, classical and jazz. His 2018 follow up, Heaven and Earth, made many “best of" lists cementing the tenor saxophonist's reputation as an important player on the ...

Live Review

Kamasi Washington at Academic Community Hall of Hong Kong Baptist University

by Rob Garratt
September 11, 2019

Kamasi Washington Academic Community Hall of Hong Kong Baptist University Jazz World Live Series Hong Kong September 6, 2019 The anointed savior of 21st century jazz, Kamasi Washington is all about size, scale and scope. He writes big, brash, hummable themes, punctuates them with gutsy, garrulous, saxophone solos, and embraces weighty spiritual and sociological themes-- assembling huge groups playing for peace and unity. His big ideas are presented in unwieldy ...