Sax genius Kamasi Washington trusts you to get complex jazz
Saxophonist Kamasi Washington makes familiar music, like you've never heard it before.
You may recognize his smooth sax and string arrangements from Kendrick Lamar's stunning album To Pimp A Butterfly, but his sound builds on a musical tradition that has been dimly understood and hard to document for decades.
Now a man who grew up busing to better schools is being hailed as one of the most important modern jazz musicians around — but he doesn't think his success should be so exceptional. Washington recalls taking home more books than he could carry, while the kids back in his neighbourhood didn't have a single one.
"What about all my friends that didn't get bused out?" says Washington, who doesn't shy away from putting his complex work in political and cultural context. The former straight A student who spent half his days practicing sax says he still feared being profiled as a threat.
"People don't realize what that does to you," he says.
His new album The Epic is a three-hour opus that traces black American musical history, and has been hailed an important cultural touchstone by the Black Lives Matter movement.
"We've been saying this forever: man, if we could just get the music to the people, they would love it."
WEB EXTRA | Watch Washington's concert The Epic in full below, then check out his international tour dates.
Watch Washington perform Re Run Home live.