Kamasi Washington Sets New Album 'Fearless Movement' For May Release

Kamasi Washington confirms his new album, Fearless Movement, is set for release May 3 via Young. A new song, “Prologue,” debuts today alongside a video directed by longtime collaborator AG Rojas and choreographed by Samantha Blake Goodman. Pre-order/Pre-save Fearless Movement here.

Additionally, Washington unveils plans for an extensive North American tour kicking off May 4 at New York's Beacon Theatre with further dates including Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, which he will co-curate with Herbie Hancock for the second year in a row, on June 16. See below for full tour routing.

Washington calls Fearless Movement his dance album. “It's not literal,” Washington says. “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.”

Dance as an embodied form of expression signals a shift in focus for Washington. Where previous albums dealt with cosmic ideas and existential concepts, Fearless Movement focuses in on the everyday, an exploration of life on earth. This change in scope is due in large part to the birth of Washington's first child a few years ago.

“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.”

The album features Washington's daughter—who wrote the melody to “Asha The First” during some of her first experimentations on the piano—as well as a host of collaborators new and old. André 3000 appears on flute, George Clinton lends his voice, as do BJ The Chicago Kid, Inglewood rapper D-Smoke and Taj and Ras Austin of Coast Contra, the twin sons of West Coast legend Ras Kass.

Washington further enlisted lifelong friends and collaborators Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, Brandon Coleman, DJ Battlecat and more. The album also features “The Garden Path,” a song Washington performed for the first time ever, making his late-night television debut, on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and bandleader born and raised in Los Angeles. His three bodies of work to date—The Epic; Harmony of Difference, an EP originally commissioned for the 2017 Whitney Biennial; and Heaven and Earth—are among the most acclaimed of this century.

As Told To G/D Thyself, his short film companion to Heaven and Earth, debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to widespread acclaim. In 2020, Washington scored the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations for his work.

Also in 2020, Washington co-founded the supergroup Dinner Party with longtime friends and collaborators Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper and 9th Wonder—their EP Dinner Party (Dessert) was subsequently nominated for a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album.

In 2021, he contributed a cover of Metallica's “My Friend of Misery” to the band's Metallica Blacklist covers project. Washington has toured the world over and collaborated and shared stages with Kendrick Lamar, Florence + the Machine, Herbie Hancock and many more.

KAMASI WASHINGTON LIVE

May 4—New York, NY—Beacon Theatre

May 5—Philadelphia, PA—Union Transfer

May 7—Toronto, QC—History

May 8—Cincinnati, OH—Ludlow Garage

May 9—Detroit, MI—St. Andrews Hall

May 10—Chicago, IL—Thalia Hall

May 11—St. Paul, MN—Fitzgerald Theater

May 12—Omaha, NB—Slowdown

May 14—Houston, TX—House of Blues Houston

May 15—Dallas, TX—House of Blues Dallas

May 16—San Antonio, TX—Empire Theater

May 17—Austin, TX—Empire Garage

May 30—Vancouver, BC—The Vogue Theatre

May 31—Seattle, WA—The Showbox

June 1—Eugene, OR—McDonald Theatre

June 2—Portland, OR—Crystal Ballroom

June 5—Sacramento, CA—Crest Theatre

June 6—Monterey, CA—Golden State Theatre

June 7—San Francisco, CA—Warfield

June 8—Santa Cruz, CA—The Catalyst

June 9—Solana Beach, CA—Belly Up

June 11—Mesa, AZ—Mesa Arts Center

June 16—Los Angeles, CA—Hollywood Bowl Jazz Fest

July 31—Alexandria, VA—The Birchmere

Photo credit: B+

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