#harmony of difference

Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference (Young, 2017) Genre: Spiritual Jazz, Soul Jazz Artwork: Amani Washington

such a beautiful song and music video.

10 Feb., ‘20

Chip Mooney

Kamasi Washington - Truth

Finally, it’s arrived.  Pre-ordered and the wait is over. Kamasi Washington’s latest release, Harmony of Difference.  I’ve avoided reading anything about it. I wanted to hear for myself what the man and his crew had been up to. This is more like an Expansion than a full blown new album. A place holder for the impending 2018 release. It features all the usual Washington touches, frantic horn solos screeching and tumbling, keening and wailing across subtly shifting ensembles. A base that always retains grooving harmonic depths from which solos arise rather than are ushered in. As with the Epic, there are moments of sheer beauty that last - a moment -before distilling into chaos. Only the chaos isn’t as wild this time around. The opening track, Desire, is a beauty. A simple bass line ushers in a warm Washington breeze. There is a pain in this orchestration. It lies in the melody line and is reflected in the ensemble that swells up to engulf the horns. Washington takes first solo and it’s a warm open tenor sound replete with nonchalant sighs before he’s screaming away to dissipate into a blues drenched Cameron Graves rhodes solo, then there’s that melancholy, chanting, instrumental ensemble once more.  Humility is anything but. It’s a proud fierce up-in-yer face piece of good old get-down. It swings like crazy.  Knowledge, is a beautiful thing. One of those Washington compositions that you’d expect to find after a frantic cascade through the changes, but here, it’s a work on its own merits. Porter’s trombone solo breaks up the proceedings before Washington briefly enters the fray and then the ensemble rolls up to carry them all away once more. There are those rolling thunderclouds of dissonance that echo off the walls of melody before leading into a simple two-note entry to a gentle two-step. You know you gotta have Perspective. It’s a lilting little thing, perspective, that builds into a grooving, hip-swaying stroll down main street. Then there’s the boss’ horn with that, by now, familiar, staccato rise up the scale towards an unexpected return to that hip, swinging stroll. There’s so much influence here. Latin percussion even, that sits right at home beneath that now familiar, trademark, rising ensemble. Melodic with its plaintiveness and faint sad echoes of despair that seems to be so evident everywhere in this happy stew. Washington is a distinctive horn player. His trademark step, step, step up his horn is still there. Always there. But there’s less of the raucous flamboyancy that peppered his previous release. This is a restrained and at times very “polite” recording.  The vocals on Truth are nothing short of pure tear-your-soul-out beautiful. There are few moments better than when Washington rises through that choir. He takes a light bright, lyrical solo here that flows elegantly around his horn, sinuously slipping from one phrase to the next. A quick glissando, then there he goes step, step, step, step, stepping up again to lead us into the swirling heart of tenor madness where his fingers fly and notes come a-tumbling all above that cushioning sadness that swells again to engulf the tenor, before a moment of silence and then, bass and strings. There’s phrases throughout this recording that sound like they have been lifted from everywhere. Think the Blackbyrds and there’s an Orville Sanders style guitar riff courtesy of Matt Haze. Think Pharoah Sanders and there’s your man, Kamasi.  Think what you want. This is what it’s meant to be. A masterful reinterpretation of music, that’s Jazz, not jazz. Bring on the new album in 2018!

"truth" kamasi washington harmony of difference 2017