Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth

[felser]

3 hours ago, jlhoots said:

I guess we'll all just go on listening to what we prefer whether the players are dead or alive.

 

[mjazzg]

Does Kamasi cover EWF? I hope so

what a great band, thanks for posting these clips, the day's started well in this part of the world today because of them

[Hot Ptah]

21 hours ago, Justin V said:

I slogged through an hour of it and gave up.  My goal was to make it through the whole thing, but life is too short.  If Washington ever develops into a compelling artist, his inability or unwillingness to self-edit (two three-disc sets in a row?!?) and deliver a concise statement of his vision may hurt him.  

 

19 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Not far off my thoughts either. Compare the impact that, say, Max Roach or Booker Little can achieve on a 30 minute Candid, with profound statements made and compare with the sprawling ‘covering all the bases’ 3CD behemoth.

Or maybe I’m just getting old ! 

Kamasi Washington released an EP in 2017, "Harmony of Difference," which is short, with more sparse arrangements. It may be much more to your taste.

When a track from "Harmony of Difference" was included on an Organissimo.org Blindfold Test, and no one knew who they were listening to, it received only positive comments.

15 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

I just find the overly protective nature of Jazz fans to be fascinating. Not that I’m immune to it, mind you. 

But man, if an artist doesn’t meet an incredibly strict and rigid criteria, then they best leave well enough alone and get off our goddamn lawn! 

The irony being that Jazz, almost by definition, is about exploration and trying new things. But you sure as FUCK better get that new thing right, son! 

Great comment. I have met a lot of rock, country, Latin music, and hip hop fans in the past five years, as I have moved in new social circles after a divorce. No genre of music other than jazz seems to have such negative, judgmental fans the way that jazz does. It was a real eye opener.

 

Edited July 27, 2018 by Hot Ptah

[sidewinder]

Calling in at the local HMV store this afternoon, I noticed that every single Kamasi release (including the EP) was on the wall display, alongside Adele et al, all on ‘special’. No surprise there. What was the surprise was to see a whole stack of Coltrane ‘Both Directions’ CD sets directly underneath, also in the charts and also on special !  

I bought one of course (the Coltrane, that is).

Edited July 27, 2018 by sidewinder

[Big Beat Steve]

5 hours ago, Hot Ptah said:

Great comment. I have met a lot of rock, country, Latin music, and hip hop fans in the past five years, as I have moved in new social circles after a divorce. No genre of music other than jazz seems to have such negative, judgmental fans the way that jazz does. It was a real eye opener.

 

Not so sure. I've encountered quite a few (maybe) negative but definitely judgmental (and pigeonholing) rock and country fans too - yes, and blues too. There stills seems to be a core "purist" blues fraternity who will shudder at the thought of the evolution of blues as in R&B and whatever came afterwards.

As for jazz fans, maybe their "judgmental" attitude to some extent comes from the fact that in the recent few decades there have been times when whatever would not fit any other musical category was lumped in with jazz, though those who lumped this music in apparently had no deeper interest in (actual) jazz (even in a wider stylistic sense) as such but just found the "jazz" marketing tag and its connotations of use to them.

[jazzbo]

I've listened to all three discs several times. And will do so again. I like it. My best friend from Texas came to visit me last week and we listened to a few tracks together. He didn't enjoy it as much as I did. . . but then he hadn't heard any of his previous work and in my case it took me a few listens to the "The Epic" to really find all that I liked about it.

I think my favorite is the EP "A Harmony of Difference." Not necessarily because it is more concise, it's a more lively performance. But I do like this one. I do wish it were better mastered, it's not a bad recording, but it needs more "headroom."

Edited July 28, 2018 by jazzbo

[Scott Dolan]

Probably produced by people used to working in Rock/Pop. And these days they know how to sonically destroy pretty much everything they record and master, unfortuately. I swear they’ve learned how to produce an entire album with 0dB of dynamic range. 

[T.D.]

On 7/27/2018 at 10:29 AM, Hot Ptah said:

.... No genre of music other than jazz seems to have such negative, judgmental fans the way that jazz does....

 

I feel strongly that fans of the classical genre are at least as judgmental!

[Scott Dolan]

13 minutes ago, T.D. said:

I feel strongly that fans of the classical genre are at least as judgmental!

I’d have my doubts just because, outside of Hooked On Classics, there’s really not much cross pollination between Classical and other genres. 

[kh1958]

4 hours ago, T.D. said:

I feel strongly that fans of the classical genre are at least as judgmental!

In my experience, classical music "buffs" are easily the most smug and condescending of all music fans.

[Scott Dolan]

10 minutes ago, kh1958 said:

In my experience, classical music "buffs" are easily the most smug and condescending of all music fans.

But for what reason? 

[Chuck Nessa]

1 hour ago, kh1958 said:

In my experience, classical music "buffs" are easily the most smug and condescending of all music fans.

I guarantee I am equally smug and condescending in both jazz and classical.

[erwbol]

8 hours ago, kh1958 said:

In my experience, classical music "buffs" are easily the most smug and condescending of all music fans.

That might be just perception, because they often come dressed as well-off bourgeois cunts.

[Hot Ptah]

16 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

I guarantee I am equally smug and condescending in both jazz and classical.

It is good to know oneself.

[jlhoots]

Snobs keep the standards up.

[Scott Dolan]

“Standards” being a rather approriate word choice. 

[felser]

2 hours ago, Scott Dolan said:

“Standards” being a rather approriate word choice. 

[jlhoots]

40 minutes ago, felser said:

Tee hee!!

[JSngry]

I don't know that smug and condescending and open-eared/minded are mutually exclusive qualities...

[Scott Dolan]

The way they are executed in concert with other by hardcore Jazz police? They sure as seem to be, IMO. 

[imeanyou]

I bought 'The Epic' and picked this up the other day. I liked them both, there's a lot of music here and not all of it is pristine and glistening. There are moments where I think 'smooth jazz' rears it's ugly head, but that's OK too- I can tire of the 'Pharoah-meets-Charles Stepney' conceit. I think the danger for Washington is that he's so firmly nailed his colours to the cosmic jazz/hip hop demographic that he has few other directions to move in. His future work better bring something new or I'll be jumping off this particular mothership. Not quite ready to get wet just yet, but the clock is ticking....

 

Oh yeah, ..and he's no John Coltrane either..

Edited August 6, 2018 by imeanyou

[jazzbo]

 

Kamasi Washington and band were on last night's (series finale) episode of Homeland. That was a surprise!

[Buddha the Magnificent]

22 hours ago, jazzbo said:

 

Kamasi Washington and band were on last night's (series finale) episode of Homeland. That was a surprise!

Yeah, I saw that, LOL!  Surprise indeed.  Nice few minutes of him and his group playing.  He's a very sharp dresser, BTW.

On 8/6/2018 at 1:41 AM, imeanyou said:

I bought 'The Epic' and picked this up the other day. I liked them both, there's a lot of music here and not all of it is pristine and glistening. There are moments where I think 'smooth jazz' rears it's ugly head, but that's OK too- I can tire of the 'Pharoah-meets-Charles Stepney' conceit. I think the danger for Washington is that he's so firmly nailed his colours to the cosmic jazz/hip hop demographic that he has few other directions to move in. His future work better bring something new or I'll be jumping off this particular mothership. Not quite ready to get wet just yet, but the clock is ticking....

 

Oh yeah, ..and he's no John Coltrane either..

I actually agree right down the line with this.  There's a lot of good music on his albums, but sometimes you get the image of the starship Enterprise blasting across the screen of an old 15-inch B&W tv; I'm definitely talking TOS here, not that gussied-up TNG and later.