New Kamasi Washington: Fearless Movement

– Written by John Makela –

On May 3rd multi-instrumentalist band leader / jazz musician Kamasi Washington released one of the most exceptional, star-studded, albums this year. 

Fearless Movement is the fourth tape in Washington’s catalog, and has features from the likes of André 3000, Thundercat, George Clinton, and many more. This album pushed boundaries for modern jazz in many ways. 

The features included on Fearless Movement were easily one of the most notable adds of the album. The features gave us some sounds we haven’t heard in a minute, and ones we can be expecting going forward. 

George Clinton was one of these unexpected but blissful features. The Funkadelic-famed singer songwriter appears on the track ‘Get Lit’, and it makes one of the coolest, slickest, jazz songs out today. It was a name I did not expect to see, the lead of one of the most influential funk rock bands in HISTORY, props to Washington for knowing his music. 

André 3000 also makes an appearance on the single Dream State, with that same flute that gave us the 2023 instrumental album, New Blue Sun. While I would’ve loved to hear André rap as I would from any feature coming from him, the flute pleasantly surprised me. 

Aside from the music itself, there are tons of different ways that made Fearless Movement stand out. Compared to his first released album The Epic with a runtime of nearly three hours, this tape comes in at an hour and a half. Still long as fuck but it is clear to me that this album was created to be a lot more palatable for the mainstream audience. 

This was the first album Washington decided to include named features from artists outside of the band he usually works with. This brought something we haven’t seen much of in Washington’s music, lyrics. 

The album art is also very unique. It pictures Washington fitted the fuck up with a dope ass cane in front of some artwork with a little kid running around. It’s hard to decipher what meaning it should have, but I believe that it fits well regardless. 

A few of my favorite tracks off this album would be Garden Path, Asha the First, and Dream State, of course. Washington described the tape as his “dance album” which is sorta hard to picture but he elaborated further 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.” 

When it came to pushing boundaries this tape had no fear. To hear an album with this level of effort in production in 2024 is genuinely insane. It really stepped up the jazz game to a level we didn’t even know existed. Kamasi Washington has been great, this has been proved with every release of his, but this album is greatness, in an auditory format. 

Kamasi Washington is an extremely talented individual. He gives us music that he has formed and crafted to sound so fucking ellegant. It’s  rare to see someone with such talent and such clear vision in their music. I can’t even express how different this album is, and how appreciative I am for this new sound, it really can only speak for itself.