Jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington is a central figure in the Los Angeles jazz scene. He’s toured for over a decade with artists like Herbie Hancock, Lauryn Hill, and Snoop Dogg. He collaborated on Kendrick Lamar's classic "To Pimp A Butterfly". And only months later, Kamasi released his own highly-acclaimed, three-disc record "The Epic"

For a minute there Kamasi Washington was The Guy Who Played Saxophone and Created the Jazz Arrangements on the Kendrick Record, but it didn’t take long for his astonishing album The Epic to develop a life of its own. 

After growing up  in Los Angeles and working as a touring musician for the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lauren Hill and Raphael Saadiq, the 34-year-old saxophonist, bandleader and composer earned his first major recognition for his musical contributions to Kendrick Lamar’s massively hailed To Pimp A Butterfly.

This list isn’t meant to be definitive. Instead, it’s an alphabetically ordered grab-bag of what some of The Atlantic's editors and writers listened to over and over again in 2015. You can listen along with our Spotify playlist.

How good of a year did L.A. have for new music? So good that this list of the 20 best albums and EPs to emerge from our city in 2015 could easily have been twice as long.

These are the best songs of 2015, the ones we couldn't stop playing, the ones we shared, the ones we kept close all year long. 

My Top Ten albums of 2015 list is online here at philly.com and in this week's Sunday Inquirer.

As everyone who's caught his sprawling live show already knows, jazz bandleader Kamasi Washington's maximalism will not be contained, and that, ludicrous as it may sound, even a three-hour label debut broken down into three volumes titled “The Plan,” “The Glorious Tale,” and “The Historic Repetition” and given the title The Epic still ever so faintly suggests the tip of the iceberg that sunk the RMS Titanic. 

It’s been real, 2015. This year has given us instant rap classics, expertly crafted bubblegum pop, the return of an R&B music icon and surprise albums that still haven’t left our minds.

The hottest ticket at this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival was Gilles Peterson’s New Jazz, New Dance event at the Barbican. Brit trio GoGo Penguin opened for Kamasi Washington, who showcased his acclaimed debut album The Epic with an eight-strong band that he's been playing with since his teens. TOM CHURCHILL caught up with the saxophonist backstage to discover more about the Los Angeles scene that spawned this unique group of players.

The saxophonist Kamasi Washington, 34, is a key figure in the Los Angeles jazz scene. As well as leading his own band, the Next Step, and collaborating with a variety of jazz musicians, he has worked with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill and Chaka Khan. Washington was a distinctive presence on Kendrick Lamar’s latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly, and in May released The Epic – his wildly ambitious 172-minute debut studio album – to rave reviews.
 

It’s early days, but Kamasi Washington could be the biggest thing to hit jazz for years, decades even. The 34-year-old Californian saxophonist, composer, and bandleader has succeeded in making experimental improvised music that sounds both contemporary and relevant – and, crucially, attractive to younger listeners – without short-changing its essential jazziness.

Jazz musician Kamasi Washington has been having a killer crossover year outside of traditional jazz scenes, and he just keeps rising. He just played a few CMJ shows, including one at Le Poisson Rouge on October 16. We've got pictures from that show in this post.