Music Review: Kamasi Washington, Harmony of Difference

Kamasi Washington has definitely arrived as Harmony of Difference boldly confirms.

If you listen to Harmony of Difference just once you'll want to head to New Plymouth next March to hear Kamasi Washington, who will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of Womad 2018.

So the story goes, Kamasi was just 13 when he picked up his father's saxophone for the first time and reeled off Wayne Shorter's Sleeping Dancer Sleep On.

Now 38, Kamasi is the torchbearer for the jazz of now and tomorrow, in a way, dare I say it, that Miles Davis was in 1959 when his star-studded quintet laid down Kind of Blue.

The Harmony of Difference EP is his follow up to the tour de force 2015 release The Epic which delivered a 172-minute wake-up call to music fans of pretty much every music genre.

This time Washington has created a series of majestic workouts all linked by a gorgeous melody that is explored by a stellar band with a relatively restrained outing by his own sax interplay.

In the 13-minute finale Truth the component sounds all merge into a peak, reminiscent of Coltrane's A Love Supreme, but not as sonically edgy, and including a mass choir backing the instrumental resolution.

Kamasi Washington has definitely arrived as Harmony of Difference boldly confirms.
That trip to Womad next year to experience his music live is a no-brainer.