• News

• All

Dec 13, 2024 By Mark Redfern

Modern jazz icon Kamasi Washington released a new album, Fearless Movement, in May via Young. Last night he was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he performed the album’s “Lesanu” and was joined by a full band, his father, and four Ethiopian dancers. Watch the fantastic performance below.

Washington’s band for the performance featured his father Rickey Washington on flute, Ryan Porter on trombone, Brandon Coleman and Cameron Graves on keys and piano, Tony Austin and Mike Mitchell on drums, Miles Mosley on bass, Patrice Quinn on vocals, and DJ Battlecat. The Ethiopian dancers were performing traditional movements and were choreographed by Dereje Bekele and Bethlehem Bekele.

Fearless Movement features “The Garden Path,” a new song he shared in 2022. The day after the song was shared, Washington performed it for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which was also his TV debut. “The Garden Path” was one of our Songs of the Week. When the album was announced, Washington shared its second single, “Prologue,” via a music video. “Prologue” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its third single, “Dream State,” which features André 3000, who plays flute, and was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its fourth single, “Get Lit,” which features George Clinton and Inglewood rapper D-Smoke. Then he shared an accompanying 13-minute short film, also titled Get Lit.

Various other musicians contribute vocals to Fearless Movement, including BJ The Chicago Kid and Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra (who are the twin sons of California rapper Ras Kass). The album also features regular collaborators Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, and DJ Battlecat.

Washington says Fearless Movement is his dance album, but that doesn’t mean he’s switched to electronic music. “It’s not literal,” Washington says in a press release. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music—expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.”

Another big influence on this album was the birth of Washington’s daughter a few years ago. She is even featured on the album in that she wrote the melody to the album’s “Asha the First” when she was first experimenting on the piano.

“Being a father means the horizon of your life all of a sudden shows up,” says Washington. “My mortality became more apparent to me, but also my immortality—realizing that my daughter is going to live on and see things that I’m never going to see. I had to become comfortable with this, and that affected the music that I was making.”

Washington’s last album was the acclaimed double album, Heaven and Earth, released in 2018. It was our #1 album of 2018. Read our 2018 cover story interview with Washington.

Washington was also one of the artists on the cover of our 20th Anniversary Issue (Issue 69).

He’s also in the supergroup Dinner Party, alongside Terrace Martin and Robert Glasper, and they released a new album, Enigmatic Society, in 2023.

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.