Kamasi Washington's sophomore album Heaven and Earth is the ambitious sequel to his critically acclaimed debut 'The Epic', and consists of two halves where the groundbreaking artist confronts everyday life with cosmic themes. The album is about Washington's settlement with today's global chaotic states, as well as his vision for the future.

Vinyl Gourmet Best New Music 2018

• 4LP + Extra 1LP edition (The Choice)
• Over 2.5 hours worth of music
• Special Gatefold Cover
• Cut at Masterdisk, USA
• Pressed at Optimal Media, Germany

"The latest from the saxophonist and bandleader is a multi-genre feast of musical ideas, his most sweeping and complete statement yet." — Nate Chinen, Pitchfork

"Throughout simply titled/simply written tracks like 'Lullaby' and 'Journey,' Washington has astonishingly revealed another element to his budding songcraft." — Exclaim

Kamasi Washington's sophomore album Heaven and Earth is the sequel to his critically acclaimed debut The Epic, and consists of two halves where the groundbreaking artist explores the realities and cosmic themes of life. The album is about Washington's settlement with today's global chaotic states, as well as his vision for the future. Heaven and Earth not only fulfills its overarching ambition, but illustrates the dialectic between seen and unseen, real and imagined, citizen and culture, self and self, as well as self and other, and does so through the lens of a mature but never jaded revolutionary consciousness. Washington gathered his band, The Next Step, along with members of the well-established collective The West Coast Get Down in Henson Studios in Los Angeles to record the album's 16 tracks.

The artist's own words best convey the inspiration behind this monolith of an album: "The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind. This idea inspired me to make this album Heaven and Earth. The reality we experience is a mere creation of our consciousness, but our consciousness creates this reality based on those very same experiences. We are simultaneously the creators of our personal universe and creations of our personal universe. The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of. The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between."

"Kamasi Washington arrived on the international jazz scene from Los Angeles with a bang after the release of 2015's three-disc, three-hour The Epic. While he'd been around for a decade, playing with Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar -- whose To Pimp a Butterfly he arranged and played on -- the mammoth project turned him into jazz's perceived savior almost overnight. But he understood his own mission remarkably well and has remained undaunted by the hype. His second, double-length long-player Heaven and Earth was announced via tweet: "The Earth side…represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am part of. The Heaven side…represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me." Washington reassembled his Next Step band -- which includes bassists Miles Mosely and Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner, drummers Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Tony Austin, trombonist Ryan Porter, pianist Cameron Graves, keyboardist Brandon Coleman, and vocalist Patrice Quinn -- supplemented by a jazz orchestra, West Coast Get Down, a symphony orchestra, and choir.

Heaven and Earth is a major dose of Afro-Futurism. Earth opens with a killer cover of the theme from Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury, retitled in plural here. Quinn and Dwight Trible duet on lead vocals backed by a soaring, sweeping choir atop a cooking Latin jazz groove complete with montunos from Graves and a raw-boned solo from Washington (who is on fire throughout). The other cover is a funky take on Freddie Hubbard's "Hub-Tones," with layers of propulsive Latin rhythms. Dontae Winslow's jagged trumpet solo cuts across the mix before Washington's tenor answers. Of the originals, "Connections" is a space jazz embrace of hard bop and 20th century West Coast jazz, with great solos from Porter and Winslow, while "Testify" owes as much to Caribbean grooves and soul as jazz. Heaven commences with the spectral "The Space Traveler's Lullaby," with its gorgeous warm brass and reeds, swelling symphony strings, and soaring wordless chorus sounds like the Gil Evans and Sun Ra orchestras playing together. "Vi Lua Vi Sol" features a vocoder vocal from Coleman, with Porter blowing fills and a beefy solo, swooping synth lines atop Afrobeat drumming, and a popping upright bassline. The breaks and future funk of "Street Fighter Mas" owes equally to Miles Davis, Lamar, and Earth Wind and Fire as the choir extrapolates on the harmonics before Washington's skittering R&B-drenched solo. "Song for the Fallen" weds angular avant-jazz and future funk to wiry fusion and a multivalent rhythmic attack -- with the choir adding a celestial bent. Heaven and Earth is more a refinement of the ideas expressed on The Epic than an entirely new paradigm. There is less wandering, more focus, more inquiry and directed movement, as well as an abundance of colorful tonal and harmonic contrasts. More than anything else, it establishes Washington as a composer and arranger of dizzying potential and still underscores his twin rep as a soloist and jazz conceptualist." - Thom Jurek, All Music

Track Listing:

01. Fists Of Fury
02. Can You Hear Him
03. Hub-Tones
04. Connections
05. Tiffakonkae
06. The Invincible Youth
07. Testify
08. One Of One
09. The Space Travelers Lullaby
10. Vi Lua Vi Sol
11. Street Fighter Mas
12. Song For The Fallen
13. Journey
14. The Psalmnist
15. Show Us The Way
16. Will You Sing

(+5 tracks on "The Choice" extra LP)

Click here to listen to samples on YouTube.com ♫