‘I don’t need to be from here to tell you I love you,” Kamasi Washington says, teeing up the velvet soul of Lines in the Sand. From the back of the room comes a voice, propelled as much by the convivial brilliance that has lit up the stage for the past half an hour as it apparently is by a couple of Thursday-night beers: “I love you too, mate!”
The title of the Los Angeles bandleader and tenor saxophonist’s recent album Fearless Movement promised much and largely delivered, but when live, its all-in-it-together spirit grows extra legs. As Washington and his band draw out its tracks into giddy, 15-minute jazz extemporisations coloured by P-funk squelch and rowdy hip-hop, their joy at being able to play together is obvious and wonderful.
