Kamasi Washington

WXPN welcomes – and Ars Nova Workshop & R5 Productions present – the transcendent saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington at Union Transfer on Sunday, May 5. Philadelphia’s Nu School Collective (Kayla Childs, Keyanna Hutchinson, and Steve Mckie) open the show.

Tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington made a massive impact on the jazz world and beyond with the release of his monumental 2015 debut album, The Epic. The scale of Washington’s vision has only grown more expansive in the years since, bringing the spiritually searching sounds of Coltrane and Pharoah into the 21st century alongside his peers from The L.A.-birthed collective the West Coast Get Down. On his latest album, Fearless Movement, he channels that quest into physical form with a focus on the transportive power of dance. His collaborators on the album include fellow visionaries including André 3000, Thundercat, George Clinton, and Terrace Martin.