Kamasi Washington is a Jazz saxophonist and composer from Los Angeles. Kamasi is an innovator in his field of West Coast Jazz and all of music has different quirks and hip licks that let him stand out from the rest. A lot of his music is harmonized in 5ths and 6ths which gives the horn parts an interesting, defining texture. The whole album “Epic” that Kamasi released last month has a lot of innovations and great tracks but many people say that ‘Re Run Home’ is the best of all of them. The song starts out with a beautiful Latin drum beat with some piano and bass. This jazz trio setup in the beginning proves to be effective and helps build up the song.
The song slowly crescendos until the horns come in. Kamasi’s tone on the tenor sax is very meaty and fat like Dexter Gordon but has that bit of tinniness similar to Sonny Rollins in the altissimo register. The chord changes on this piece are very hip and innovative and the composition really takes advantage of the drums the whole time. The sax solo is really funky and makes great use of the “fat lip” technique. This song may not sound like many Jazz standards or classics but is definitely innovative and progressive. Check it out and comment what you think!