Los Angeles saxophonist and band leader Kamasi Washington cuts a divisive figure in the jazz world. Some traditionalists consider his sound derivative, but for a new generation the Kendrick Lamar collaborator has catalysed interest in a scene that once felt inaccessible. His second LP, a conceptual double album exploring earth (reality) and heaven (idealisation), is perhaps unlikely to sway the old guard, but it pushes forward with a purposeful vitality that was at times missing from his debut album, The Epic. The gripping Earth side bursts to life with Fists of Fury, a Bruce Lee film score cover (with Patrice Quinn’s refrain: “Our time as victims is over/ We will no longer ask for justice/ Instead, we will take our retribution”), setting the scene for more political charge and soaring retro cinema stylings than before. While Earth finds Washington wielding his sax as a furious, necessary weapon, the indulgent, opulent cushion of Heaven serves as a dazzling balm, the choir transforming from theatrical to celestial. Final track Will You Sing? blends the urgency of the first half with the dreaminess of the second, fittingly closing an immersive call to realise Washington’s idealised, heavenly vision.
