Kamasi Washington

In the organizer's words:

Kamasi Washington

Fearless Movement Europe Tour

presented by Landstreicher Booking
07.11.2024 Cologne, Carlswerk
Admission: 19:00 hrs | Start: 20:00 hrs

Presenters: DIFFUS and Rausgegangen

Anyone who has ever seen the Los Angeles-born tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington live or met him for an interview will find it hard to believe that he is only 43 years old. The jazz boundary-pusher comes across more like a master of ceremonies who has been traveling the world for decades, has absorbed jazz in all its facets and now ensures on stages large and small that even pop and rap fans forget all fear of contact as soon as they have succumbed to his hypnotic playing.

Kamasi Washington has repeatedly shaken up the musical landscape in recent years: albums such as "The Epic" (2015) and "Heaven and Earth" (2018) are considered milestones in contemporary jazz, he shaped the sound of Kendrick Lamar's super album "To Pimp A Butterfly", played and composed the soundtrack to the Michelle Obama documentary "Becoming" and founded the supergroup Dinner Party in 2019 with jazz great Robert Glasper and producers 9th Wonder and Terrace Martin. At Kamasi Washington 's concerts, young rap kids stand alongside indie hipster audiences and jazz nerds of all ages.

Kamasi Washington will release his fifth studio album on May 3. It will be called "Fearless Movement", contain twelve songs and feature well-known guests such as Thundercat, André 3000, George Clinton and his Dinner Party colleague Terrace Martin. The pre-release single "Dream State", released at the beginning of April, is already causing a stir: Kamasi Washington's saxophone playing dares to dance meditatively with Outkast legend André 3000, who, as we all know, no longer raps but plays the wind instrument and flute.

Other tracks on the album, such as "Asha The First" and "Road To Self", are far more driving and danceable. Washington himself says of "Fearless Movement" that it is a "dance album". But: "When people hear that I'm making a dance album, it's not meant literally. Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it's the same as music - you express your mind through your body. That's what drives this album."

Well said. Especially because it's also what drives his concerts and his live band. With him as the aforementioned master of ceremonies on the tenor saxophone, the performance of his hand-picked fellow musicians takes on an almost spiritual note that has set every body in motion - regardless of whether you're in a jazz bar, at a pop festival or in a large concert arena.

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