Washington, Kamasi

Vinyl Records and Rare LPs:

	Becoming (Music From The Netflix Original Documentary) New - Vinyl - YT230LP Sealed 2020 Black vinyl edition. "In scoring Becoming, director Nadia Hallgren's Michelle Obama documentary, saxophonist, composer, and arranger Kamasi Washington reveals a side of his musical universe we've not encountered on his own sprawling, spiritually inspired albums. He drew inspiration from Hallgren's counsel, her narrative frames, and Obama's life and musical tastes -- he listened to her playlists in preparation. These 15 cues clock in at just over 30 minutes, offering an enforced brevity that presented a challenge: His recordings can reach three hours. To help fulfill his vision, Washington enlisted longtime compatriots the West Coast Get Down collective. Washington, like Hallgren, zeroes in on essences in emotion and meaning. He gets straight to the heart, using cues based on circular riffs, not chord or mode changes. The lithe, bossa groove in opener "Shot Out of a Cannon" slips and slithers. Guided by a trap kit, its lilting horns, hovering piano and organ, and acoustic guitar offer a breezy welcome. The title theme weds the graceful soul of Curtis Mayfield to Philadelphia International's elegant charts. In "Take in the Story," Washington re-creates the feel of sunshine breaking through immense cloud cover; his soprano whispers a love theme before quoting "America the Beautiful" as part of it. "Southside V.1" weds storefront church gospel to gritty soul-jazz as a simmering B-3 highlights the rich, warm vibrato from his tenor sax. "The Rhythm Changes" joins slippery, cinematic funk to pillowy horn harmonies, bumping bass line, and psychedelic soul's wah-wah guitar like a groove from the early days of the Love Unlimited Orchestra. "Detail," with its rumbling upright bass line pushing a fluid piano (played throughout the album by Cameron Graves), offers a harmonic structure that reveals the influence of Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown scores and Washington's love of Gerald Wilson's arrangements. "Provocation" is dark; it's a processional framed by entwined contrapuntal statements and textures from reeds, brass, winds, and strings, guided by rippling piano. "Looking Forward" is a meditative spiritual weave of strings, organ, and gently swelling brass. "I Am Becoming" frames a resonant Hi Records-inspired soul melody with wordless backing vocals adding a gospel feel atop an emergent B-3, piano, keys, and strings. Washington leads the solos with a meaty, reedy tenor break followed by electric guitar and muted trombone. Closer "Southside V.2" updates and expands its predecessor by evoking the gutbucket soul-jazz of Vonand George Freeman while grafting on rousing, sophisticated horn arrangements inspired by the Jazz Crusaders. While the restraint here is a surprise, Washington is directly locked in and committed to the complex emotions and history that Hallgren evokes in framing Obama's story. On Becoming, he offers succinct, gently powerful themes that reflect the source material for music he's absorbed and played throughout his life. While it's impossible to say how much Becoming will influence what Washington does next, don't bet against it playing a significant role." All Music Guide – Thom Jurek more
	Becoming (Music From The Netflix Original Documentary) New - Vinyl - YT230LP Factory sealed soundtrack to the original Netflix documentary. Standard black vinyl version. more
	Harmony Of Difference New - Vinyl - YT171 Sealed 2017 original. Custom hype sticker on shrink. "It's tempting to hear Kamasi Washington's six-track Harmony of Difference suite as a follow-up to his sprawling, justifiably acclaimed three-hour debut The Epic. But this EP, at just over half-an-hour, is, in many ways, a standalone work. It was performed in New York at The Whitney Biennial as part of a show that included a film by director A.G. Rojas and paintings by Washington's sister Amani. According to the artist, it was composed to explore "the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as 'counterpoint.'" Washington defines it as "the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies." That description is, at least in this setting, akin to metaphor in the current socio-political-cultural era where flash point battles over issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural appropriation are being waged afresh. These six tunes reveal Washington's compositional and arrangement mastery. Five relatively short themes are all standalone tunes but are all embodied in the 13-minute climax "Truth," which embodies tenets from all of the preceding tunes but is an entirely new holistic rainbow of sound. Washington draws heavily on numerous influences from '70s jazz here, as well as the modal influence of John Coltrane. "Desire" introduces a melodic theme that emerges from spiritual soul-jazz, but with Matt Haze's electric guitar and a wordless vocal chorus, it touches on everything from Billy Harper's Capra Black (second side) to Santana's Caravanserai and Norman Connors' first three albums -- in four-and-a-half minutes! It opens onto the progressive big band -- à la Gerald Wilson -- of "Humility," which sports a fleet, knotty piano solo from Cameron Graves, a soulful trumpet break from Dontae Winslow, and Washington's squalling solo above a B-3, and the interplay between two drummers (Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner, Jr.) and bassist Miles Mosely. "Knowledge" and "Perspective" make full use of CTI's illustrious palette for arrangement with an expansive horn chart. Ryan Porter's trombone solo comes right out of Los Angeles soul (the former) while Kamasi's honk and groove in the latter suggests the fleet funk of Grover Washington, Jr. and adds Thundercat on electric bass. The smooth switch gets flipped on in "Integrity," whose theme and rhythms actively engage Brazilian, Latin jazz, and West African jazz. The sprawling "Truth" adds a choir, vibes, and a full string section as it embraces the themes of its predecessors and stretches them to the breaking point, where they seamlessly meld into a wonder of color, tempo, improvisation, and lush exotic form. Harmony of Difference reveals a gentler, more economical, but no less adventurous Washington. It's chock-full of refreshing, sophisticated ideas, all balanced by an empathic, emphatic inclusiveness that engages the listener at both musical and emotional levels." All Music Guide - Thom Jurek more
	Harmony Of Difference New - Vinyl - YT171 Sealed 2017 original. Custom hype sticker on shrink. "It's tempting to hear Kamasi Washington's six-track Harmony of Difference suite as a follow-up to his sprawling, justifiably acclaimed three-hour debut The Epic. But this EP, at just over half-an-hour, is, in many ways, a standalone work. It was performed in New York at The Whitney Biennial as part of a show that included a film by director A.G. Rojas and paintings by Washington's sister Amani. According to the artist, it was composed to explore "the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as 'counterpoint.'" Washington defines it as "the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies." That description is, at least in this setting, akin to metaphor in the current socio-political-cultural era where flash point battles over issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural appropriation are being waged afresh. These six tunes reveal Washington's compositional and arrangement mastery. Five relatively short themes are all standalone tunes but are all embodied in the 13-minute climax "Truth," which embodies tenets from all of the preceding tunes but is an entirely new holistic rainbow of sound. Washington draws heavily on numerous influences from '70s jazz here, as well as the modal influence of John Coltrane. "Desire" introduces a melodic theme that emerges from spiritual soul-jazz, but with Matt Haze's electric guitar and a wordless vocal chorus, it touches on everything from Billy Harper's Capra Black (second side) to Santana's Caravanserai and Norman Connors' first three albums -- in four-and-a-half minutes! It opens onto the progressive big band -- à la Gerald Wilson -- of "Humility," which sports a fleet, knotty piano solo from Cameron Graves, a soulful trumpet break from Dontae Winslow, and Washington's squalling solo above a B-3, and the interplay between two drummers (Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner, Jr.) and bassist Miles Mosely. "Knowledge" and "Perspective" make full use of CTI's illustrious palette for arrangement with an expansive horn chart. Ryan Porter's trombone solo comes right out of Los Angeles soul (the former) while Kamasi's honk and groove in the latter suggests the fleet funk of Grover Washington, Jr. and adds Thundercat on electric bass. The smooth switch gets flipped on in "Integrity," whose theme and rhythms actively engage Brazilian, Latin jazz, and West African jazz. The sprawling "Truth" adds a choir, vibes, and a full string section as it embraces the themes of its predecessors and stretches them to the breaking point, where they seamlessly meld into a wonder of color, tempo, improvisation, and lush exotic form. Harmony of Difference reveals a gentler, more economical, but no less adventurous Washington. It's chock-full of refreshing, sophisticated ideas, all balanced by an empathic, emphatic inclusiveness that engages the listener at both musical and emotional levels." All Music Guide - Thom Jurek more
	Heaven And Earth New - Vinyl - YT176 Sealed 2018 5LP Set Housed In A Multi-Fold Jacket. Kamasi Washington’s Sophomore Album Heaven And Earth Not Only Fulfills Its Overarching Ambition, But Illustrates The Dialectic Between Seen And Unseen, Real And Imagined, Citizen And Culture, Self And Self, As Well As Self And Other, And Does So Through The Lens Of A Mature But Never Jaded Revolutionary Consciousness. more
	The Epic New - Vinyl - BF050 Sealed 2015 180gm 3LP Boxset. Featuring The Newest Guard Of The Los Angeles Jazz Landscape, An Incredible Representation Of That Scene Which Had Burgeoning For Well Over Ten Years Prior To This Release. more
	The Epic New - Vinyl - BF050 Sealed 2021 3LP Boxset. Featuring The Newest Guard Of The Los Angeles Jazz Landscape, An Incredible Representation Of That Scene Which Had Burgeoning For Well Over Ten Years Prior To This Release. more