“I know it’s hot, but it feels good to me,” Kamasi Washington announced to a swelteringly hot Troxy, taking to the stage with his frenetic new single The Garden Path. Written about the disorientating shape of the world at present, its giddying mesh of rapidly unfurling brasslines and beefy funk rock beats sounded like barely-contained chaos as Washington’s trusty saxophone mingled with a repeating vocal mantra. “Bright minds with dark eyes/Speak loud words, tell sweet lies.”
Washington’s ability to harness a feeling and run with it atop kinetic jazz-meets-electronic-funk is something to behold. Perhaps that’s partly why the Los Angeles musician has emerged as one of the leading artists spearheading a fertile jazz revival that’s also set down roots in south London.
