Kamasi WashingtonKamasi Washington's mainstream debut as a solo artist was a gigantic three-disc album, appropriately titled The Epic. For the follow-up, he's stripped things down to a piddling double album - Heaven And Earth.
When dealing with such sprawling music, it can often prove difficult to differentiate one gargantuan effort from the next. Not so here. Heaven And Earth feels markedly different from The Epic, albeit not so much as to feel like a departure for the Kendrick Lamar and Flying Lotus sideman.
If anything, Heaven And Earth feels more accessible than The Epic. Like The Epic, it could have been released anytime in the past 50 years without it sounding particularly out of place. But the palette has expanded. While still clearly jazz-driven, there's also heavy strain of Ennio Morricone's hallucinogenic textures strewn throughout. The rhythms are notably funkier too. Beautiful The Space Travelers Lullaby even recalls the soaring, swooning highs of John Barry's classic work on early Bond films.
In other words, it very much transcends its primary genre. It's simply too colourful and creative to safely inhabit any single style. While jazz fans will be delighted, curious listeners are also likely to find Heaven And Earth to be richly rewarding.
