Baby Huey and a cosmic jazz orchestra made a child amongst the stars. In their benevolence and love, they gifted us their firstborn, Kamasi Washington. He has a new album out this month, Heaven and Earth (released 22 June on Young Turks), his attempt to tackle “global chaos”. Leading off that LP is “Street Fighter Mas”, the tune that he dreamt up as his own entrance music for gaming contests. There’s no doubt that the anticipation would have built beautifully as the smoke filled the arena and the audience waited for their champion to appear. Shuffling drums and immaculately squelchy bass set the tone for our cool-as-fuck hero, but he sells himself short: this isn’t just the intro, this feels like a character arc of combat skill and stoic suffering distilled into sub-six minutes of soaring saxophone and swelling choir. Kamasi-as-fighter is every bit as cosmic as Kamasi the musician. The album should blow your minds.
Listen here, and watch the video trailer here.
