Attending a jazz concert of Kamasi Washington is an audibly and visually intense experience, just like listening to his outstanding records. Kudos to the organizers of the ZMF Freiburg for bringing him with his septet into their world-class program this year. Let me approach the description of this amazing evening with a word cloud (a very eloquent and fitting recap of this intense evening was published in the Badische Zeitung): cool, epic, atmospheric, super powerful, empowerment, spiritual, ambitious, eccentric, rock & roll, frenetic, fast, furious. humanity, love, loud, call to action/fist of fury, intriguing, transcendence, flurry, high-speed, fusion, feels like jazz, rallying, gentle giant, sparse but powerful lyrics, mega groove, thunder, biblical, drumageddon, bombasstic, Jimi Hendrix on keys, crazy, physical, hyponotizing, mesmerizing, different, hip-hop, energetic… - in short, a magical performance! - Below are some portraits taken during this wonderful evening.
“I use hands - To help my fellow man, I use hands - To do just what I can, And when I face with unjust injury - Then I change my hands - To fists of fury”
Kamasi Washington - ZMF Freiburg 2019
“….to remind us how beautiful we all are. It’s our differences that make us beautiful. Diversity is not something to be tolerated, but something to be celebrated”
Patrice Quinn - ZMF 2019
Brandon Coleman - ZMF 2019
Kamasi Washington - ZMF Freiburg 2019
Miles Mosley - ZMF 2019
Kamasi Washington - ZMF Freiburg 2019
If you like to see more of Jazz, check out my featured images in the “Portraits in Jazz” section or individual sessions in the “blog”. Hopefully they inspire you to go to a club near by and experience it all live.