ARTIST...: Kamasi Washington
TITLE....: Harmony Of Difference
YEAR.....: 2017
LABEL....: Young Turks
CAT.NO...: YT171
GENRE....: Jazz
TIME.....: 31:29
SIZE.....: 55,90 MB
QUALITY..: 247kbps/48,0kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME 3.98.4 -V0
SOURCE...: Vinyl
RLS.DATE.: 2017/10/25
WEBSITE..: https://theyoungturks.co.uk/store/view/harmony-of-difference
TRACKLIST
01) (04:33) Desire
02) (02:43) Humility
03) (03:49) Knowledge
04) (03:22) Perspective
05) (03:43) Integrity
06) (13:19) Truth
Even on this shorter EP, saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington
displays a tireless ambition with his compositions, performance,
and spiritual approach.
Where the standard path through jazz usually involves an ascending
series of apprenticeships and supporting gigs, saxophonist Kamasi
Washington and his compatriots essentially created their own scene
in relative isolation in South Central Los Angeles. Washington first
gained national notice for his playing and arrangements on Kendrick
Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly (the album also included contributions
from members of Washington's loose collective, the West Coast Get
Down), but by the time that album was released, he was 34 years old
and had written enough music for an audacious three-hour, three-disc
debut album, 2015's The Epic.
Instead of a jazz label, that record came out on Flying Lotus'
imprint, Brainfeeder, and Washington's band got booked to play clubs
and festivals that typically host indie rock or rap groups; which is
to say that so far, nothing about Washington's rise fits an
established template. His music is very much of jazz, but the context
he and his collaborators have created sits slightly outside it.
Continuing the trend, Washington's new EP, Harmony of Difference,
comes courtesy of Young Turks, a sublabel of XL that has released
music by Jamie xx and FKA twigs, and it contains music written for
an exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art's 2017 Biennial.
Harmony of Difference was originally part of a multimedia work that
illustrated how forces that seem to be working in opposition could
come together as a composite of complex beauty. This was illustrated
in the original exhibit by a series of projected paintings (created
by artist and Washington's sister Amani Washington) that were gradually
overlaid to form an abstract image of a face. Musically, Washington
explores the theme by writing a series of five short pieces that are
also folded together into a lengthy, recombinant suite.
That extended piece, called "Truth," was released earlier this year as
part of a short film by director A.G. Rojas (which was also part of the
Whitney exhibit). The structure lends a sense of déjà vu, as motifs and
riffs and melodies are introduced and then reappear later. Where
musical counterpoint was the driving idea for the compositions, Harmony
also feels like a meditation on memory, association, and vantage point.
Hearing it in one sitting is like looking at a sculpture from multiple
angles and suddenly the three-dimensional form clicks in your mind and
you apprehend the whole.
In approach and tone, Harmony feels of a piece with parts of The Epic.
"Desire" anchors the suite with its elemental one-two-three bassline,
which hints at the iconic motif from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme,
while "Humility" is driving and jagged, focusing most on Cameron Graves'
spray of piano notes. "Perspective" is a mid-tempo groover in the soft
funky vein of Grover Washington Jr. There are elements of '60s
small-group jazz and '70s R&B; calypso rhythms percolate under tightly
arranged ensemble sections and then the structure gives way to thematic
improvisations. Throughout, Washington has a particular mode of
arranging and layering the horn section (which, along with his tenor,
includes Ryan Porter on trombone and Dontae Winslow on trumpet) that's
dreamy and lush, a slowly drifting cloud of healing sound.
Though Washington is a fine tenor soloist, the essence of his artistry
is found in his explosively grand compositions and arrangements.
"Truth," like parts of The Epic, is a dense, maximalist tune with
strings and choirs reaching for the heavens in the manner of an old
Hollywood production number choreographed by Busby Berkeley, and for
some people the sheer drama of it all may prove to be overwhelming. But
Washington expertly juggles all the parts to create music that is deeply
(and surprisingly) accessible. As a player/bandleader/composer/arranger,
Quincy Jones and Oliver Nelson are two of Washington's clear antecedents.
Albums like Jones' 1970 classic Gula Matari and Nelson's 1961 outing The
Blues and the Abstract Truth featured exceptional soloists on extended
pieces where genre was fluid and the composition and the arrangements
were the biggest selling point. Like Jones and Nelson, it's not hard to
imagine Washington having great success in film scoring-his sense of
shading and the broad sonic palette available hint at a vast well of
possibility.
But what ultimately binds Washington's work together is his spiritual
approach. As with The Epic, the title of this release and of the
individual pieces suggests the scope of his ambition. The concept for
Harmony and the video for "Truth" make clear that Washington is framing
his work so that they're in conversation with the biggest social issues
facing the world. His music is both a challenge and a balm, the starting
point of a conversation and a place you can go to meditate on what's been
said. Following on its massive and sometimes unwieldy predecessor,
Harmony of Difference, a brief and concentrated blast of emotion, is a
great place to catch up on what Washington has to say.
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