After taking in Friday night’s 100 minute concert at the Ace Hotel, I’m convinced that If anyone is going to carry the torch for carrying jazz into the 20th Century, my vote was going to Kamasi Washington. During a time when most jazzers would be happy with a ¾ room filled at a small club like The Blue Whale or Catalina’s, Kamasi and his 11 member band along with two vocalists packed the 1400+ seated Ace Theatre, and the crowd was a healthy mix of races and ages. Just a look around at the enthused audience made you realize that Mr. Washington has tapped into something. What is it?
Well, first of all, when was the last time you had a member of the band play personal dj and welcome in the audience by playing soul classics on his computer? Yet, there Battlecat stood, creating a hip mood to welcome in the fans.
For his part, Angeleno Kamasi Washington came on stage dressed like the emperor of the Malian Empire, regal in suit and hair, with his father Ricky by his side and teamed up with an avalanche of a rhythm section which included two percussionists, two drummers, a keyboardist and anchored by longtime pal, bassist Miles Mosley, who himself looked like a Romulan Pirate, having “Good To Be Home” inscribed on his upright. Washington has earned his right to be given a chance to be the next spokesman for jazz, having paid his dues gigging around town for years with such luminaries as Harvey Mason and Gerald Wilson before forming his own wide ranging ensemble.
None of the seven songs are catchy or laden with hooks to attract a “pop” audience. Rather, Washington through his music comes across like the logical extension of the spiritual musical quest of John Coltrane on the thunderous “Magnificent Seven” that had the leader roar like a lion and Mosley bow, bend and snap his strings like Reese Witherspoon. The vocal support by Patrice Quinn and Dwight Trible added texture and passion to the already cresting wave.
But each of the songs had their own allure, as “Journey” teamed Dontae Winslow’s bopping trumpet with Quinn’s soul-CTI for a piece that melded swing with a torrential hip hop beat that felt like the culmination of what urban R&B hopes to achieve when it grows up. And, while Washington joked that “Street Fighter Mas” was inspired by a video game, the piece itself was a riotous funk-fest that had Battlecat and trombonist Ryan Porter juxtapose solos and textures like a mixed media sonic painting. Mosley dug in as deep as any classic Blue Note album on his brooding bass intro to “Truth” before Washington’s tenor sax displayed more majesty than a stack of Impuse! albums lined up together, producing declarative shouts and hollers that took on the massive rhythm like a longboarder on a tsunami.
Giving a nod to tradition was father Ricky Washington who after playing soprano and flute most of the evening pulled out his own tenor for a hard bopping tribute to Freddie Hubbard on the snappy “Hubtones,” and with son Kamasi joining in, a two tenor battle royal was eventually joined in by the entire horn section for a stampede that resembled Red River.
A meditative solo tenor intro by son Kamasi lead the way into a gripping “Askim” that featured Trible as a pleading prophet and alto axist Cameron Graves jumping on stage for the chorus before Quinn closed out with a declarative “Fists Of Fury.” Yet with all of these seemingly disparate sounds and harmonies, Washington was able to tie them all together for acceptance by a large audience. As he stated during the show, his approach is simple, stating “We don’t want our musical or personal differences to be something tolerated, but celebrated.” Washington even noted that one of the songs was “comprised of five different melodies at one time, to show how beautiful it is when we all come together.” And with the sellout crowd on its feel for most of the evening, a celebration of united hearts, at least for one night, was accomplished by the pied piper with the tenor horn.
Upcoming at the Ace Hotel is Rick Wakeman 01/22