Bio

Kamasi Washington was born in 1981 in Los Angeles, California. He attended high school in Los Angeles at the Academy of Music at Alexander Hamilton High School. He would go on to attend college in UCLA’s department of ethnomusicology where he would gain valuable experience playing with Kenny Burrell and Billy Higgins. Throughout the 2000’s he would connect himself with the flourishing art music scene in Los Angeles. He would associate himself with a diverse list of musicians such as Kendrick Lamar, Lauryn Hill, Flying Lotus, George Duke, Chaka Kahn, and Thundercat. He would play sax on Kendrick Lamar’s landmark recording ‘To Pimp a Butterfly.’ He would go on to release his first album as a leader ‘The Epic’ in that same year.