Remember when you first heard Miles Davis’ “A Kind of Blue”, and first ‘got’ proper Jazz. I do. Glass of wine, probably.  A warm fire and a new CD (and a CD player is a novelty these days). It was just like waking up to what all the ‘old beardy guys’ were bleating on about all the time, except I actually ‘got it’.  This new album from Kamasi Washington is like that moment, modern day contemporary jazz of the highest order.  Building on the frantic, if that is possible over 3 hours, ‘The Epic’ album of 2015 this seems to me to be a more reflective and dreamy piece of work, possibly as ‘The Truth’ was initially released alongside an art installation and film.

I prefer the front three tracks of the album to the last three tracks but that is fine.  Indeed ‘The Truth’ isn’t doing for me in the way that ‘Desire’ and ‘Humility’ do.  What does that say about me?

I am quite into Kamasi Washington’s collaborations called ‘Throttle Elevator Music’, and the early part of this album seems to reflex that vibe?  Have a listen.

Desire – *****
Humility – *****
Knowledge – ****
Perspective – ****
Integrity – ****
Truth – ***

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Album – Harmony of Difference
Artist – Kamasi Washington
Download These At Least – All of it, no really, just download the whole thing
Source – Auralic Lightning DS App, Qobuz library
Player – Auralic Polaris
Amplification/Output – Auralic Polaris to KEF R700s
Album Released – 25th September 2017
6 Tracks, 31′ 54″
Overall Rating – 4.2