American jazz musician Kamasi Washington has come a long way in just under a decade. His ‘proper’ debut album ‘The Epic’ – released in 2015 on Brainfeeder – lived up to its name. That was followed up by ‘Heaven and Earth’ on Young in 2018. Since then, he’s scored the Netflix documentary ‘Becoming’ and released two EPs with Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder. Now he’s released his third album. At 86 minutes long it’s actually the shortest album he’s released for a while: both ‘The Epic’ and ‘Heaven and Earth’ clocked in at around three hours. This time around Washington has brought in some friends for the journey – half the album features guest spots. The amount of talent on display is terrifying, but the music is rich, catchy, hedonistic and joyful. What more do you want?
‘Asha the First’ is one of the harder-hitting tracks on the album. Over this Taj and Ras Austin trade raps, and it works incredibly well. I know that jazz and hip-hop have gone hand in hand since its inception, but here it sounds so flawless it almost hurts. But this isn’t the best bit of ‘Asha the First’, it’s the melody. It was written by Washington’s daughter. And it slaps.
‘The Visionary’ is an instrumental number. Its oozes with sensuality and charm. Its hard not to listen to it without smiling. ‘Get Lit’ is another harder hitting track and features the vocals duties of D Smoke and George Clinton. Yes, THAT George Funkadelic Clinton. It’s a song about getting older, romance, love and setting down.
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‘Dream Stare’ features Andre 3000. Things are more psychedelic here. The horns weave in and out creating hypnotic motifs. Under this there is a throbbing electronic bass that gets more prominent as the song goes on. ‘The Garden Path’ features some wonderful Greek tragedy choruses, but really soulful. Then Washington, and co, break loose and gets really into the groove. Especially the drumming. That drumming about a third of the way through is some of the best I’ve heard for a while. On any album.
The best track on the album is ‘Road to Self’. At 13 mins it’s also one of the longest. It starts off with wonky, cascading, electronics. This gives way a deep bassline. Over this sparse drumming and gentle horns flow. This could be the most beautiful playing Washington has ever committed to record. It oozes elegance, like classic jazz records from the 50s and 60s had. Gradually everything builds. The cascading electronics act as transitions from themes to themes. Just over halfway through everything slowly drifts out and its mostly just bass, guitar and drums, with a smattering of piano. As the intensity ramps up, so do the solos. This is what I’d imagine a Washington Prince collaboration would have sounded like. Then, in the final moments it all drifts out and a delicate piano outro confronts us with a comforting hug.
Washington has compared ‘Fearless Movement’ to dance music. Not literally, but because it has plenty of movement, and expression, on it. I would counter and say he has made dance music. There is plenty of places to groove and dance in, around the through. When the groove on ‘Dream State’ kicks in I can imagine people moving, gyrating and dancing to it live. It might not be the most energetic dancing, but you can dance to it.
What ‘Fearless Movement’ demonstrates to the listener is something I’ve wondered for a while. Can Kamasi Washington reign it in and deliver something concise. Yes, his last two albums were glorious, unwieldly beasts, but they were, let’s be honest, pretty long and didn’t get a lot of repeat listens. On ‘Fearless Movement’ he’s made something that doesn’t feel overpowering to begin with. Less is definitely more and the songs here pack more of a punch than anything he’s released so far. This feels like a fearless artistic movement if ever I heard one.
8/10
Words: Nick Roseblade
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