#fearless movement

Kamasi Washington - Road To Self (KO)

(Young)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Kamasi Washington believes in the limitless power of imagination. On Fearless Movement, the jazz saxophonist's fifth studio album, Washington doesn't expand his sound, making room for guest rappers, just for the sake of it. Instead, he presents Fearless Movement as a step in an infinite evolution. If it seems like he's trying things out, that's because he is, and Fearless Movement is a tribute to the buoyancy of music.

Indeed, Washington has contextualized Fearless Movement as a dance record--not literally, say, a Chicago house album, but a collection of songs you can dance to, and more importantly, that suggest transitory states. He developed the record during a time of collective stillness--the pandemic--but of personal change, as his daughter was born. He exposed her to the teachings of Coltrane and Coleman, and by age 2, she was toying around on piano and came up with the melody for what would become "Asha The First". Washington's daughter's explorations are a microcosm for the approach he and his band took on Fearless Movement. "Dream State" formed out of an invitation from Washington for Andre 3000 to bring his flute to jam alongside co-writer and keyboardist Brandon Coleman, drummer Tony Austin, and producer Mono/Poly. The song starts with woodwinds over drones, as if the players are getting used to their new surroundings, before Andre's flute chops over a pulsating synth bass beat, the woodwind instruments eventually fluttering in syncopation. Meanwhile, "Lesanu" and "Road to Self (KO)" are two of the most dynamic tunes Washington's ever put to tape. The former, a prayer in the Ge'ez language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, sees Washington, the new father, thinking about his own mortality in the wake of a friend's passing. The transitions, from shimmery drums and vocals into free clattering and swirling horns, then into post-bop with handclaps, are more sudden, but no less natural. The latter, on the other hand, is a 13-and-a-half minute epic that gradually changes tempo many times, in each instance led by a breathtaking line: arpeggio keys, elongated horns, Woody Aplanalp's raw lead guitars, and drums.

While many of the verses on Fearless Movement are perhaps less sophisticated than their musical counterparts, especially as they read on paper, they work in conjunction with the instrumentation. Taj and Ras Austin go back-to-back on "Asha The First", Taj waxing on the future and the cycle of institutional problems plaguing our world, Ras much more optimistic and spritely about the exponential benefits of learning. "Teach 'em the Afrocentric lens of this life that's upon us / Not just vices and charmer, give advice from the prices of karma / Deeds and action, laws and righteous rights and honors," he raps, atop a steady instrumental highlighting Thundercat's unmistakable bass noodling. Saxophone and organ solos bookend their verses, as if to present their words as chapters in an ongoing conversation. On neo soul standout "Lines in the Sand", singer Dwight Trible both stands up to and recognizes the reverence of borders, both physical and metaphorical, in this day and age: "Lines in the sand won't take my soul from me / Lines in the sand keep us alone and weak," he sings. The chorus of voices that pop in and out, nestled within the saxophone, Cameron Graves' piano, and organ, serve to bolster but also warn him.

There are a couple tracks on Fearless Movement that do grapple with modern dance music, to varying degrees of commitment. The one with the most star power is "Get Lit", which pairs funk legend George Clinton with rapper D Smoke on a bouncing track about partying and community. (Hearing D Smoke attempt to find biblical precedent for his hedonistic and horny verses is especially amusing). But album closer "Prologue" stands out. It interpolates Astor Piazzolla's tango into a propulsive and breathtaking swath of horns, piano, and drums, Dontae Winslow's trumpet solo perhaps the best individual moment on the album. By the end of the song, Washington's saxophone screams. In conjunction with the keys, it sounds like it's glitching. After all, sometimes, when you're experimenting, you'll break something. The key, as suggested by the record title, is to not be afraid.