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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
After claiming his place in the spotlight by overwhelming force with The Epic, Kamasi Washington capitalizes on both his newfound fame and his journeyman work ethic to produce a follow-up that’s more intimate and just as daring at the same time.
91
Heaven And Earth is shorter than his powerful, three-hour debut, but it might be even more ambitious, splitting its 16 tracks into a two-part concept album: the first reflecting the world as it is, the second depicting Washington’s optimistic vision of the world as it should be.
90
An exceptional record from one of the music world's brightest talents.
90
Upon even just a first listen, one wonders not whether 'Heaven and Earth' is an extraordinary album, which it most certainly is, but how we might reflect upon the effort in forty years' time.
90
As with The Epic, Heaven & Earth not only exemplifies Washington’s ability as a saxophonist and band leader, but also the band he has assembled. Every member gets their chance to shine. By drawing from a broader sonic palette, Washington brings a tenderness and intimacy to their big, bold music.
90
There is a wealth of ideas on the table here. It takes a musician, composer, and arranger of Washington's caliber to take these ideas and form them into a brilliant collection of performances. Kamasi Washington is jazz music's brightest light – may he continue to burn for a long, long time.
90
He has again proved he's a bandleader with a steady hand and a fiercely curious artistry carrying forward the best of what jazz can be. His modernity is in keeping with great innovators like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Sun Ra, and like them before him the more unconventional facets of his music help to keep the genre alive rather than indulging the dusty nostalgia and convention of traditionalists.
90
On his fourth LP, the L.A. saxophonist unleashes yet another colossal batch of material, exploring an unfathomable scope of moods, genres and ideas over 16 tracks and 150 minutes.
90
There are very few contemporary artists with both Washington’s talent and audacity of expression. The insistent vitality of this music, responding to a damaged world on the ‘Earth’ album and exploring the artist’s own view of our existence on the ‘Heaven’ set, should ensure those with genre anxiety are put at ease, while the purists are in for quite a journey.
88
As a listening experience, Heaven and Earth contains the most transcendent moments of his output thus far, as well as some of the gnarliest.
85
This is a record that throbs and vibrates with an infectious pulse even when the instrumentalists aim for the outer reaches of lightning-speed look-at-me flurries of virtuoso showing-off.
80
This is the rare jazz record that feels equipped to venture outside the genre’s familiar borders and engage with the wider world.
80
There are choirs and strings, rumbling low-end and even some dissonant synthesizer; and there are songs of jubilee and liberation, born equally of church traditions and civil rights marches. Everything’s writ large; it is music that contains multitudes, and it’s teeming with joy and power.
80
His second LP, a conceptual double album exploring earth (reality) and heaven (idealisation), is perhaps unlikely to sway the old guard, but it pushes forward with a purposeful vitality that was at times missing from his debut album, The Epic.
80
It might not be formally radical, but the tunes are irresistible, and Washington and his band The Next Step have a winning charisma.
80
Heaven and Earth is more a refinement of the ideas expressed on The Epic than an entirely new paradigm.
80
Whether his success will lead audiences to further explore music that usually exists on the fringes is an interesting question. What is more certain is the quality and accessibility of his own music.
80
Heaven & Earth is ultimately yet another example of Washington’s incredible prowess behind the saxophone but also as a composer.
80
In a decade of major black American LP statements to match the conscious soul and jazz golden age of forty years ago, Washington is, along with D’Angelo, the artist most steeped in that era’s rhythmically liquid language, and Heaven and Earth allows little let-up in slippery grooves and soulful uplift.
80
For his sophomore release, Kamasi Washington goes above and beyond in his compositions while occasionally sticking too close to jazz mainstays. Though it plays to traditional concepts, the places that Washington takes the music is truly awe-inspiring.
70
It strives for boldness and muscular imposition, and aims to stir, excite and inspire. If Washington’s music opens the door for new audiences to explore a wider range of improvised music, it is undoubtedly a positive thing.
70
There is a ton of excitement. But there is also a big mess of oddly throwback—often schlocky—arranging.
70
An edit of ‘Heaven And Earth’ that preserved, say, just the vocal tracks, would result in a masterpiece of coherence and retain Washington’s clear desire for heft. As it is, everything here might be fine delicacy, but together it’s too rich for all but the biggest appetites.
60
By adhering so much to its grand formula, Heaven and Earth comes off as even more cumbersome than The Epic.
60
His work might not be the best indicator of where jazz as a whole is headed – try the latest from Vijay Iyer or the recent debut from supergroup R+R=Now – but his vast, refreshingly lavish soundworld is well worth getting lost in.
Ok so like this album generally seems to retain the same level of quality & skill as The Epic, like it's all there, but this was just way more uninteresting to me than The Epic. It had some amazing moments of ecstatic bliss on songs like the opener, the last couple songs, Street Fighter Mas, the ending of Vi Lua Vi Sol & Tiffakonkae, but like ultimately there's really nothing that this album offers that you couldn't get on The Epic. I can't tell if it's a good or bad thing that it's ... read more
It’s no secret that I love jazz, and I try to make it obvious I like it a lot. With the liking of jazz, I can understand more critical perceptions of jazz, and take into account a lot of things that I couldn’t bring up in other records. This record, with all it’s glorious playing and all, did have a few blemishes in my opinion.
Despite Kamasi Washington is one of if not my favorite jazz artist of the 2010s, I don’t take into account a lot of his recordings or at least ... read more
If I could describe this album in two words it'd be "humbly ethereal". Maybe that's where the title comes from - a mediator between something so wonderfully supernatural and the beauties of heaven itself. This album sounds trapped in the realm of grandeur, outside of an artist so to speak - entering the spirit of a community effort rather than the solitary vision of one individual. It plays like a ripple effect that keeps on dropping new impacts to ripple on and that results in a ... read more
On track to be one of the top jazz records of all time but ultimately falls off near the middle point... around an hour in. If this album had been shorter it could've been amongst my top of the tops
It’s no secret that I love jazz, and I try to make it obvious I like it a lot. With the liking of jazz, I can understand more critical perceptions of jazz, and take into account a lot of things that I couldn’t bring up in other records. This record, with all it’s glorious playing and all, did have a few blemishes in my opinion.
Despite Kamasi Washington is one of if not my favorite jazz artist of the 2010s, I don’t take into account a lot of his recordings or at least ... read more
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Track List
- Fists of Fury
- Can You Hear Him
- Hub-Tones
- Connections
- Tiffakonkae
- The Invincible Youth
- Testify
- One of One
- The Space Travelers Lullaby
- Vi Lua Vi Sol
- Street Fighter Mas
- Song for the Fallen
- Journey
- The Psalmnist
- Show Us the Way
- Will You Sing
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Fopp |
| #1 | / | KCRW |
| #1 | / | MOJO |
| #1 | / | Under the Radar |
| #3 | / | BBC Radio 6 Music |
| #4 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #4 | / | The Observer: Kitty Empire |
| #7 | / | The Guardian |
| #7 | / | Yahoo Music |
| #8 | / | Drift |
More Lists
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Added on: April 10, 2018