Musicians You Should Know: Kamasi Washington

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Basic Facts

Born: February 18, 1981, Los Angeles, California
Type of Performer: Saxophonist, bandleader, composer
Genre: Jazz
Awards:
  1. American Music Prize for Epic 
  2. Giles Peterson Worldwide Album of the Year for Epic

About Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington was born and raised in Los Angeles. He grew up around music and played several different instruments before he took up the saxophone at age 13. His dad was a jazz musician who took him around South Central L.A. to see different acts, piquing his interest in jazz. He became the lead tenor saxophonist at Hamilton High School Music Academy before going on to study ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2004, while still a student at UCLA, he recorded a self-titled album with the jazz quartet Young Jazz Giants, and he self-released several other albums and performed on a handful of other artists' records between 2005 and 2014. He was a session musician for artists ranging from Herbie Hancock and George Duke to Snoop Dogg and Raphael Saadiq. 

He took the jazz world by storm in 2015 with the release of his debut LP The Epic. Recorded with his 10-piece band The Next Step and clocking in at 172 minutes over three discs, the expansive album mixes jazz with hip-hop, R&B, and classical, and earned great critical acclaim. It won the American Music Prize and the Giles Peterson Worldwide Album of the Year. Washington went on to collaborate with artists including Kendrick Lamar, John Legend, Run the Jewels, Ibeyi, and others. He also created "Harmony of Difference," a multimedia installation that premiered at the 2017 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. He has played at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, NewPort Jazz Festival, and many others. He is most well-known for helping jazz re-enter the conversation in popular music, in part with his appearance on and contributions to Kendrick Lamar's 2015 GRAMMY Award-winning album To Pimp A Butterfly. 

Listen

"Street Fighter Mas," from Heaven and Earth


"Clair de Lune," from The Epic


Further Reading

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