Kamasi Washington | |
|---|---|
 Washington in 2017 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | February 18, 1981 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Tenor saxophone |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | |
| Member of | West Coast Get Down |
| Website | kamasiwashington |
Kamasi Washington (born February 18, 1981) is an American jazz saxophonist. [1] He is a founding member of the jazz collective West Coast Get Down. [2]
Washington was born in 1981 and raised in Los Angeles, California. [2] [3] He is a graduate of the Academy of Music of Alexander Hamilton High School in Beverlywood, Los Angeles. [1] Washington next enrolled in UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology, where he began playing with faculty members such as Kenny Burrell, Gerald Wilson, and Billy Higgins, who mentored a quartet with Washington, pianist Cameron Graves, and the brothers Stephen ("Thundercat") and Ronald Bruner. They released their debut album Young Jazz Giants in 2004 on Birdman Records. [4] [5]
Washington joined the Gerald Wilson Orchestra for its 2005 album In My Time . [6] In 2008 and 2009 "The Kamasi Washington Band" played the outdoor Labor Day Jazz Concert on the Main Green at Village Green, Los Angeles. [7] [8] Washington played saxophone on Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly , [9] released on March 25, 2015. Washington's debut solo recording, The Epic , was released in May 2015. [10] Washington contributed saxophone on the Thundercat song "Them Changes", which was released on June 18, 2015, as a single from the EP The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam ; [11] [12] the track was later included on Thundercat's full-length album Drunk (2017).
Washington released the mini-album/EP Harmony of Difference in September 2017. This was followed by his second full-length studio album, Heaven and Earth , which was released in June 2018, with a companion EP titled The Choice released a week later.
Washington has played along with a diverse group of musicians including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Tapscott, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, [13] George Duke, Chaka Khan, Flying Lotus, Mike Muir, Francisco Aguabella, St. Vincent, the Pan Afrikaan People's Orchestra, Run the Jewels and Raphael Saadiq.
On June 25, 2020, Washington, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, and 9th Wonder announced the formation of the supergroup Dinner Party. They released a single, "Freeze Tag", and their debut extended play, Dinner Party , was released on July 10, 2020. [14]
On June 18, 2021, Washington released a new song "Sun Kissed Child" as part of The Undefeated 's Music for the Movement series. [15] Also in 2021, Washington and his band contributed a cover of the Metallica song "My Friend of Misery" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist . [16]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | John Coltrane Music Competition | Won | [17] | ||
| 2015 | Worldwide Winners | Album of the Year | The Epic | Won | [18] |
| 2016 | American Music Prize | Won | [19] | ||
| NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Jazz Album | Nominated | [20] | ||
| Libera Awards | Album of the Year | Nominated | [21] [22] | ||
| Best Breakthrough Artist | Nominated | ||||
| Groundbreaking Album of the Year | Won | ||||
| Heritage Album of the Year | Won | ||||
| 2018 | UK Music Video Awards | Best Urban Video – International | "Street Fighter Mas" | Nominated | [23] |
| Libera Awards | Best Jazz Album | Harmony of Difference | Won | [24] | |
| 2019 | Worldwide Winners | Jazz Album of the Year | Heaven and Earth | Won | [25] |
| Libera Awards | Album of the Year | Won | [26] | ||
| Best Jazz Album | Won | ||||
| Creative Packaging | Won | ||||
| Video of the Year | "Heaven & Earth" | Nominated | |||
| Brit Awards | International Male Solo Artist | Himself | Nominated | [27] | |
| UK Music Video Awards | Best Alternative Video – International | "Hub-tones" | Nominated | [28] | |
| Best Special Video Project | "As Told to g/d Thyself" | Nominated | |||
| 2020 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score) | Becoming | Nominated | [29] |
| Libera Awards | Best Sync Usage | Music in Apple Shot on iPhone XS commercial | Nominated | [30] | |
| 2021 | Grammy Awards | Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media | Becoming | Nominated | [31] |
| 2023 | Libera Awards | Best Jazz Record | "The Garden Path" | Won | [32] |
Studio albums
EPs
With Throttle Elevator Music
With the Gerald Wilson Orchestra
Kevin Marques Moo, better known by his stage name Daddy Kev, is an American DJ, Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, record producer and executive from Los Angeles, California. He is the owner of Alpha Pup Records and the founder of Low End Theory. As an audio engineer, Daddy Kev has mixed and mastered albums by Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington, and Leon Bridges.
Robert Andre Glasper is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger. His music embodies numerous musical genres, primarily centered around jazz. Glasper has won five Grammy Awards from 11 nominations.
Steven D. Bingley-Ellison, known by his stage name Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker and rapper from Los Angeles. He is also the founder of the record label Brainfeeder.
Austin Topper Peralta was an American jazz pianist and composer from Los Angeles, California. He was the son of film director and Z-Boys skateboarder Stacy Peralta.
Ronald Ray Bruner Jr. is an American drummer, composer and producer. He has played with hardcore punk/crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies. Bruner was part of the band that received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2010 for The Stanley Clarke Band.
Miles Mosley is an American musician, producer and composer from Hollywood, California. He is known for his vocal and bass skills, as well as his abilities as a composer, arranger and music producer. He is also a founding member of the West Coast Get Down, a jazz collective that includes prominent musicians such as Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, and Thundercat. Mosley was named after the famous jazz musician Miles Davis.
Terrace Jamahl Martin is an American musician, rapper, singer, and record producer. He is perhaps best known for producing records for several prominent artists in the music industry, including Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, the Game, Busta Rhymes, Stevie Wonder, Charlie Wilson, Raphael Saadiq and YG, among others. Martin is a multi-instrumentalist whose music production embodies funk, jazz, classical and soul. Martin released his sixth studio album, Velvet Portraits, on his label, Sounds of Crenshaw Records, through Ropeadope Records.
Charles E. Dickerson, better known by his stage name Mono/Poly, is a Grammy Award winning electronic music producer from Bakersfield, California.
Stephen Lee Bruner, better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American musician, singer, record producer, and songwriter from Los Angeles. First coming to prominence as a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, he has since released four solo studio albums and is noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and his appearances on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track "These Walls" from To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album.
To Pimp a Butterfly is the third studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was released on March 15, 2015, by Top Dawg Entertainment, Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. The album was recorded in studios throughout the United States, with production from Sounwave, Terrace Martin, Taz "Tisa" Arnold, Thundercat, Rahki, LoveDragon, Flying Lotus, Pharrell Williams, Boi-1da, Knxwledge, and several other high-profile hip hop producers, as well as executive production from Dr. Dre and Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith. Guest appearances include Thundercat, George Clinton, Bilal, Anna Wise, Snoop Dogg, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley, and Rapsody.
The Epic is the third studio album by American jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington and his first to be released on a record label. It was released on May 5, 2015, by the Brainfeeder record label.
The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam is an EP by American musician Thundercat. It was released on June 22, 2015 via Brainfeeder.
Josef Leimberg is a producer, lyricist, and trumpet player from Los Angeles. He contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and is currently signed with World Galaxy, the jazz imprint of Alpha Pup Records.
Drunk is the third studio album by American musician Thundercat, released on February 24, 2017, by Brainfeeder. It features guest appearances from Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, and Pharrell. It was released nearly four years after his previous studio album, Apocalypse.
It Is What It Is is the fourth studio album by American musician Thundercat, released through Brainfeeder on April 3, 2020. It was preceded by five singles: "King of the Hill," which was released as a single from the label's compilation album Brainfeeder X in 2018, and "Black Qualls," "Dragonball Durag," "Fair Chance," and "Innerstellar Love," the latter four being released in 2020. The track "Unrequited Love" had previously been used in an episode of the anime Carole & Tuesday in 2019. The album was executive produced by Thundercat and Flying Lotus, and features guest appearances from Louis Cole, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, Childish Gambino, Ty Dolla Sign, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, BadBadNotGood, and Zack Fox.
The Libera Award for Record of the Year is an award presented by the American Association of Independent Music at the annual Libera Award which recognizes "best album released commercially in the United States by an independent label" since 2012.
The Libera Awards are an annual awards ceremony organized by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). First hosted in 2012, the awards celebrate the independent music community. The capstone of A2IM's Indie Week, an annual music business conference, the ceremony has been able to be viewed by the public since 2020.
The Libera Award for Marketing Genius is an award presented by the American Association of Independent Music at the annual Libera Award which recognizes "the most innovative and creative marketing campaign for a project released by an Independent label or artist" since 2012. The category was known as Light Bulb Award in 2012 to 2014.
Dinner Party is a self titled EP by American jazz supergroup Dinner Party. It was released on July 10, 2020, via Sounds Of Crenshaw and Empire. The group, consisting of musicians Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder recorded the project at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles at the end of 2019. It features guest appearances from Chicago-based musician Phoelix. On April 14, 2023 a follow-up LP titled Enigmatic Society was made available to stream on all major platforms.
The West Coast Get Down is an American jazz collective formed in Los Angeles in 2006. Its members include saxophonist Kamasi Washington, bassists Miles Mosley and Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, drummers Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin, pianists Cameron Graves and Brandon Coleman, trombonist Ryan Porter, and multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin. Most of the members of the group gained prominence for their contributions to Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).
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