I hadn’t really ‘got’ Whitney – Max from Smith Westerns’ new band – until I saw them live here at CMJ. Debut song ‘No Matter Where We Go’ seemed nice enough when it came out a few months ago, sort of like a ballsier take on Unknown Mortal Orchestra, but it’s not really indicative of what the six piece are really about.

Kamasi Washington is radically reshaping the role of the jazz musician in the 21st century. Growing up in southern Los Angeles, Washington soaked up the gangsta rap of N.W.A. and had a keen ear for Bach, while learning the saxophone at the prestigious Academy of Music at Hamilton High School. 

One of the best-reviewed releases of 2015 is a sprawling 3-CD collection of intellectual-spiritual explorations from tenor saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington, "The Epic."

On “u,” the sixth track on Kendrick Lamar's genre-blurring hip-hop opus To Pimp a Butterfly, the sound of a tenor saxophone floats beneath the Compton emcee's intense, almost free-associative lyrics. It's improvisational in approach, but the tenor saxophone sound is ultimately a much gentler and more harmonious one than many of the other chaotic, almost free-jazz like elements happening on the track.

It’s not every day that a jazz artist is the force behind one of the most talked-about albums of the year. And it’s even more unlikely that the same jazz artist would include our city in his tour itinerary. 

Listening to Kamasi Washington is easy. That’s what many critics (even one at this publication) have been saying — that on his three-hour long album, The Epic, released this May, he’s given us “jazz for the uninitiated,” something clear and “accessible.” Washington doesn’t seem to be mad at that, but it also isn’t quite what he was going for.

his past Monday, from the rather crowded stage of the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, bandleader Kamasi Washington smiled widely. The saxophonist and arranger had plenty of reasons to do be happy during this, the first of four sold-out performances at the famous Greenwich Village music venue. Its storied stage having recently hosted artists like Bebel Gilberto, Bob James, and Eddie Palmieri, the club clearly made a wise choice in booking one of the year’s most talked-about jazz artists.

Saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington set the jazz world abuzz this past spring with his gargantuan genre-blending three-CD album “The Epic.” On Thursday night, he brought a core septet of lifelong pals and fellow Los Angeles studio aces to the Sinclair, demonstrating that his music travels well, even without the strings and choir that helped make the recording epic.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare wrote this in the late 1500s, but it’s an idea that’s relevant to so many issues today. I recently released an album called The Epic, and now people view me as a jazz musician contributing to a growing movement that is bringing jazz back to a place of widespread popularity. And so I’m often asked the question, “How can we make jazz work in the 21st century?”

In a word, the scene at Aisle 5 on Wednesday night was sweltering. It was heatstroke hot, and the mass of bodies and minds that gathered to witness Kamasi Washington's Atlanta debut displayed an uneasy tension between explosive energy and quiet anticipation. The audience had to save its strength to cope with rising temperature, and with the spiritual and intellectual spectacle unfolding on the stage.

If there’s a centerpiece to the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2015, it might be trumpeter Etienne Charles’ “San Jose Suite” (3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, California Theatre Stage). Charles’ world-premiere commission is said to reflect San Jose, Calif., and San Jose, Puerto Rico, as well as his hometown of St. Joseph, Trinidad. (Also: Charles & Creole Soul, 6 p.m. Saturday, Umpqua Bank Stage.)

Kamasi Washington is responsible for much of the arrangement on Kendrick's peerless To Pimp A Butterfly, but now he’s striking out on his own. His debut album, forthcoming on Brainfeeder, is a 172-minute opus featuring a 32-piece orchestra and a 20-person choir, fittingly titled The Epic. Miss Understanding shows what Washington is about - spiritual, maximalist jazz that fits squarely into the Coltrane lineage.

It is probably impossible to discuss Kamasi Washington's new record—all three impressive hours of it—without copping to at least some awareness of two extra-musical truths. 

The idea is simple: Listen to more jazz. And if you heed that advice, you need to listen to more Kamasi Washington, the South Central– and Inglewood-raised saxophonist who might have made the best modern jazz record of the year.

A few weeks ago, the jazz tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washingtonstood onstage at a club in Hermosa Beach, Calif., with his band, the Next Step, ending a version of the ballad standard “My One and Only Love” with an improvised closing tag, like a group cadenza.

Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, saxophonist Kamasi Washington introducing his massive three-disc jazz collection called "The Epic" on a Monday night to a sold-out, audibly electric crowd. With a title like that, the dozens of musicians packing the stage -- brass, strings, keyboards, choir, percussion and bass -- had better deliver. 

The Epic swims in rhythmic crosscurrents, with two bassists, two keyboard players, two drummers. It's made tall and wide by the presence of strings and voices, made forceful and direct by horn solos and singer Patrice Quinn. It seems intentionally to overwhelm, in an immersive way; it's music to be swept up by and revisited after the wave subsides.

t’s a hot July night, and a crowd of twenty somethings are dancing unashamedly. They throw their hands in the air and whoop throughout songs. It’s typical behavior these days for a hyped-up hip-hop or DJ set. But this is neither of those. This is jazz.