Kamasi Washington

Washington's single most cited influence — his father played him Coltrane's 'Ascension' at age 5. The spiritual yearning, tenor saxophone voice, sheets-of-sound modal exploration, and sense of music as devotional practice are direct lineage. Critics routinely reach for Coltrane's name first when contextualizing Washington's output, and Washington himself has acknowledged the debt across every major interview he has given.

"My dad is a musician and I was probably about 5 when he was playing me Coltrane's Ascension."

Desert Sun ↗

Washington saw Sanders perform at the 100-capacity World Stage club in South Central, LA as a child with his father — a formative, full-body encounter with spiritual jazz at its most raw. Sanders' ferocious, overtone-rich tenor saxophone voice and his transformation of Coltrane's spiritual quest into something even more physically intense are foundational to Washington's own performance practice. Washington occupies the same lineage: Coltrane → Sanders → Washington.

The Guardian ↗

The most specifically Los Angeles influence in Washington's lineage. Tapscott founded the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the Underground Musicians Association in South Central, building a philosophy of music as community sustenance rather than commerce. Washington grew up watching Tapscott perform, later joined the Arkestra himself, and absorbed his core conviction: that jazz is not a genre but 'black music' — a living cultural practice with social and political obligations. The Arkestral model of large ensemble, community-embedded performance is Washington's direct blueprint.

The Guardian ↗

Washington has directly cited Sun Ra's Arkestra as a model for his own cosmic ambition — the use of music as a portal to other dimensions, the extended ensemble as a collective spiritual vessel, and the refusal to distinguish between entertainment and prophecy. On Fearless Movement, Washington described certain tracks as 'meant to be like a wormhole or a portal to travel into interstellar space — that's something that Sun Ra would do.' The interstellar mythology and orchestral scale of The Epic are unthinkable without Sun Ra's example.

"That one's meant to be like a wormhole or a portal to travel into interstellar space — that's something that Sun Ra would do."

Relix Magazine ↗

Washington was a key architect of To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), co-arranging and performing alongside Terrace Martin and Thundercat in the studio collective that built the album. His saxophone work on tracks like 'Wesley's Theory' introduced an entire generation of hip-hop listeners to spiritual jazz and launched Washington's international profile. The TPAB sessions were a genuine creative partnership — not a cameo — and represented the most important cross-genre alliance in jazz's 21st-century revival. Washington and Lamar have remained in each other's orbits ever since.

Pitchfork ↗

Out to Lunch! was the first record Washington's father played him when he picked up the saxophone — an early artistic shock that permanently expanded his sense of what jazz could contain. Dolphy's multidimensional approach to the saxophone, his ability to hold melodic warmth and abstract dissonance simultaneously, and his refusal to let any single instrument or tonality dominate a composition are all qualities visible in Washington's work. Washington named Out to Lunch! as his #1 album of personal influence.

"When I told my dad I'd started playing sax, he took me to his friend Calvin's house and played me Out to Lunch!"

The Guardian ↗

Alice Coltrane's synthesis of spiritual jazz with Indian classical music, harp, orchestral strings, and Vedantic philosophy established the template for music as devotional practice that Washington draws on throughout his career. Critics consistently position her alongside John Coltrane as co-equal foundational influences — the spiritual framework, the orchestral ambition, and the sense of musical performance as sacred act are all Alice Coltrane lineage. Her Ashram recordings in particular — dense, shimmering, quasi-religious — prefigure Washington's choir-and-strings arrangements.

Desert Sun ↗

Wilson was Washington's first major patron — 'the first big jazz artist to give me a gig and the only one for years and years.' A master of dense eight-part harmony and sweeping big-band orchestration, Wilson directly inspired Washington's decision to record The Epic with a string section and choir — the most distinctive sonic signature of his debut. Washington has described Wilson as his favorite composer during his high school years, placing Wilson's orchestral conception at the root of Washington's entire aesthetic framework.

"He was my favorite composer in high school when I was coming up. The whole idea I had of adding strings and choir to my album kind of came from him."

Wax Poetics ↗

Flying Lotus signed Washington to Brainfeeder Records and gave The Epic its home, providing access to an experimental electronic and beat-music audience who had never encountered spiritual jazz before. As Alice Coltrane's great-nephew, FlyLo also operates in the same spiritual jazz inheritance as Washington — the two South Central artists represented a convergence of that lineage across generations and mediums. Brainfeeder's imprimatur positioned Washington not as a conservative jazz revivalist but as a genuinely contemporary voice.

Pitchfork ↗

Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) is the most consistent creative partner in Washington's universe. Both came up in the same South Central LA scene, both were integral to the Kendrick Lamar TPAB sessions, and Thundercat's bass work threads through Washington's discography from The Epic through Fearless Movement. On Fearless Movement he solos on 'Asha the First' — a track built on a piano figure composed by Washington's three-year-old daughter. The relationship is one of mutual creative dependency: Washington's spiritual grandeur is grounded by Thundercat's elastic, melodic bass.

The Guardian ↗

Washington has cited Hancock as an influence and worked as a session musician in Hancock's band — a direct master-apprentice relationship. Hancock's fusion synthesis — jazz harmonic sophistication infused with funk, R&B, and later hip-hop — is the most precise template for Washington's cross-genre ambition. The Quietus compared Fearless Movement to Hancock 'in its moments of feverous jazz fusion,' identifying the specific tonal territory Washington occupies: not pure spiritual jazz but jazz in full dialogue with popular music.

The Quietus ↗

Pitchfork described The Epic as calling on Parliament/Funkadelic 'in its ever-expanding definitions of black music' — identifying P-Funk not just as a sonic reference but as a philosophical one. On Fearless Movement, George Clinton himself appears on 'Get Lit,' a direct acknowledgment of funk lineage. Washington's orchestral funk grooves, sense of communal ecstasy, and insistence that jazz belongs to a broader Black music continuum rather than a specialist genre category are all P-Funk values translated into spiritual jazz form.

The Guardian ↗