Kamasi Washington - The Epic - New West Coast Spiritual Jazz

I caught both early shows this week at The Blue Note. Two words - mind blowing. Kamasi is a giant in every sense of the word. And what a band. Each member could lead his or her own group, no problem. And I think they do! Monsters, every one of them. Do not miss this show if it comes through your town. You will not be disappointed. And I'd keep an eye on the band members and catch their solo shows, too.

Amazon has The Epic vinyl available for pre-order - should be ready October 2. Can't wait!

Love,
Billy

 

Yeah, that's where I'll be n the 18th. Looking forward to it.

 

Oh man, no! Is that true? Damn, sorry I missed that. Working man - had to catch the F train straight home after early sets both nights. Sucks being old and responsible.
How were the sets at Small's, brah? I just did some back/forth with Miles on Facebook. Seems like a cool cat. Did you catch his "Carry On Wayward Son" quote last night during his solo piece? Awesome.

Glad we're good, man. I've gotten into with some folks here - especially dopey know nothing Led Zep fans. Gotten my wrist slapped a few times by moderators and trying to chill out with the hate. Not easy when you're dealing with fools.

Love,
Billy

 

I had pre-ordered the vinyl but having read this thread and the fact that one of the discs has an hour of music on it..I feel I have to cancel. I am pretty sure, never in the history of vinyl has an hours worth of music been successfully put onto one disc, with the exception of some classical tracks, like Grieg's lyric pieces etc which is just quiet piano. As mentioned above it would have to be horribly quiet meaning every pop and click will be that much more audible. Or in other words the dynamic range will be poor. What a shame and wasted opportunity! I would love to be proved wrong.....

 

There was definitely a little bit of Edgar Winter's Frankenstein in there too

 

Agreed....which in itself is a quality inhibitor as when you get that close to the centre of the disc, IGD is almost unavoidable.

Also, when Alchemy etc are testing the cut they make acetates that will have zero pops and clicks, so what they hear will be better, especially if it then goes to a pressing plant like GZ Vinyl that inject as many pops and clicks into a single disc as they can

 

Preordered via Bullmoose for $19 (lots of discount points built up from all those Zeppelin super deluxe sets), so not much risk for me. I'll let y'all know how it sounds come October...

 

I just heard this album for the first time today, and I'm really impressed. Spiritual jazz with an edge, but still accessible. I'm normally not a big fan of jazz vocals, but the vocal work on this one really does it for me. In some spots it reminds me of Spiritual Jazz Volume 6: Vocals, which is a great compilation by Jazzman Records.

I'd love to see these guys perform live!

 

I'm really hoping the vinyl release turns out well. I've streamed this one enough to know I need it in the collection but I'm waiting for reviews before I choose between LP and CD.

 

For those reluctant on the vinyl, heads up you can purchase 24-bit WAV files at Bleep.

https://bleep.com/release/57889-kamasi-washington-the-epic

 

According to Discogs this is pressed at MPO in France (fortunately not GZ Vinyl). Saying that MPO absolutely butchered a recent pressing of The Orb's latest album with non-fill issues, after having released Django Django's latest album without so much as a single click.

 

I've been reading through the whole thread trying to decide if this was something I wanted to pursue. I was reading quickly so maybe I missed it but this is the first mention I saw of vocals. Some how the discussion I've read of the music did not lead me to visualize or conceive of vocals on this album.

 

They are used selectively; nothing too crazy. They work really well on this album, I think.

 

I'm not keen on the 'songs' and am glad that there aren't more of them but I think that they give the album an occasional lift, helping to space out the instrumental music. The wordless choral element is more to my taste, but overall the album would be weakened by having no vocals at all.

 

I went and picked this up. After the football game I'll give it a try.

 

You picked this up on vinyl? Either you are so happy with it you can't stop listening to post on here.....or it was so awful that you went into shock.....

 

The vinyl release comes out on Friday (2nd)

 

Officially but some copies are already out there. First review popped up on discogs and the guy seems pleased with it.

 

Side D:
1. Miss Understanding (08:46)
2. Henrietta Our Hero (07:14)
3. Seven Prayers (07:36)
4. Cherokee (08:14)

Total time: 31:50

 

Interesting thanks... I'll wait until I hear some feedback on it before I pull the trigger.

 

No, I grabbed the CD. I've only listened to a couple of tracks so far. I'll be getting into more tonight.

 

Anyone know if the hi-rez files are less compressed than the CD version?

 

No one has heard the LPs? Looks like street date is today and a couple shops in Austin have copies. Anybody? Might pick this up at lunch if the store by my job has em on the floor.

 

Interesting -- everywhere I've looked online has Friday (October 2nd) as the release date for this. I have mine on order at my local shop.

 

Yup. Waterloo records has em and says they are dated for today. They NEVER put stuff out early. Strict rule followers. I have seen people post copies from their tables on Instagram.