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Jazz

Fearless Movement

Kamasi Washington
Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement
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Take a deep breath, cancel all your appointments, and get some wine and snacks for an epic listening experience: Kamasi Washington has a new album out. But what’s this? Washington’s debut, The Epic, came in at a triple-LP-hogging three hours – quite the statement for a first offering. His second, Heaven and Earth, was four LPs long – one was hidden in the elaborate sleeve! – and clocked in at two-and-a-half hours. But his third, Fearless Movement, is a mere double, running to an hour and a half across 12 tracks.

What’s happening? Has Kamasi lost his mojo, has he run out of epic tracks… or maybe, just maybe, he has developed a true sense of worth and managed to strip the album down to a dozen absolute bangers. No spoilers, but we are edging towards the latter.

The album is also more mixed than previous offerings: less epic jazz, more spirituality, hip-hop, and all-around funkiness – George Clinton even makes an appearance. In fact, a celebratory vibe runs through the whole record, at least part of which Kamasi himself credits to the birth of his first daughter. 

This is a sign of deep maturity in a musician. Even in jazz, there is a strong ‘stay in your lane’ drive, especially when your music is successful. But the greats never stop moving forward, they are always innovating and looking toward the next concept, the next collaboration, and the next groove. And here, Kamsai Washington shows greatness!

Reassuringly, Fearless Movement features a plentiful array of Washington’s reliable, highly talented sidekicks. These include Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin on drums, the exceptional Ryan Porter on trombone, Miles Mosely on upright bass, Brandon Coleman and Cameron Graves on keys, and the wonderful Patrice Quinn, whose vocals always lend Kamai’s albums a touch of feminine class. His dad also appears again on flute, although the headline flautist must be Andre 3000, more of whom later.

But let’s start at the beginning, with the opening Lesanu, which clocks in at over nine minutes and very much gives you the impression of business-as-usual. It’s a wonderful, spiritual jazz workout, with chanting featuring alongside shared piano freakouts and Kamasi’s highly recognizable sax style.

Asha The First is where things start to get a little crazy. For starters, it features long-term friend and collaborator Thundercat, who, as you would expect, does what Thundercat does best: lay down some incredible bass lines in an opening solo. This is followed by some sounds that, at least according to my ever-alert dog, sound exactly like a Ring doorbell going off! The middle section introduces a rapping segment that stands out from the rest of Kamasi’s previous output. We’re not saying it’s a bad thing – it just takes the listener who hasn’t studied the track credits by surprise.

Elsewhere, standout tracks include the Zapp cover Computer Love, which brings Patrice Quinn’s vocals to the fore, and The Garden Path, which is classic Kamasi and features, to my ears, some of the best soloing on the record, both from the band leader and his co-conspirators. But the true moment of wonder is Dream State, a blissful nine minutes that features the newfound flute skills of Andre 3000 and brings to mind the spiritual vibes of Alice Coltrane at her best.

The album closes, rather ironically, with the wonderful Prologue, which is a considerably more up-tempo piece than the rest of the album and is a fine closer to both this brave new record and, we would imagine, to his recent live shows.

Fearless Movement is a great album, but one where jazz traditionalists may feel he has strayed too far from the path of righteousness. Who knows, maybe we can all look forward to Kamasi’s fourth record being a 45-minute single album of funk workouts; we would not stand in his way.

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