Saxofonist

A saxophonist and composer who exploded out of the underground Los Angeles music scene to become one of the most celebrated and visible faces in jazz today, Kamasi Washington returns to for his first SFJAZZ appearance in nearly a decade, bringing music from his latest Young Recordings release, 2024’s Fearless Movement, to this performance at the Golden Gate Theatre.

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Kamasi Washington

Golden Gate Theatre

His three bodies of work to date—The Epic; Harmony of Difference, an EP originally commissioned for the 2017 Whitney Biennial; and Heaven and Earth—are among the most acclaimed of this century. As Told To G/D Thyself, his short film companion to Heaven and Earth, debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to widespread acclaim. In 2020, Washington scored the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, earning Emmy and Grammy nominations for his work.

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

Union Transfer

This performance is free and open for general seating

Saxophone Studio Recital: students of Dr. Charlie Chadwell

Western Illinois University

This performance is free and open for general seating and will be live-streamed on the School of Music's YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Senior Jazz Studies Recital: Jacob Green, alto & tenor saxophones w/ student combo

Graduate Jazz Studies Recital: Allie Garland, tenor saxophone & vocals w/student combo

The top acts in jazz and more descend on the Hollywood Bowl for two days of incredible music and a whole lot of fun.

Programs, artists, dates, prices, and availability subject to change.

Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival

Hollywood Bowl

Saxophone virtuoso and widely lauded bandleader Kamasi Washington introduced hip-hop audiences to the lineage of spiritual jazz and hard bop with 2015’s The Epic and 2018’s Heaven and Earth, heralded as some of the best music of the 2010s by The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vice, Stereogum, and many more. An artist whose multidisciplinary work has garnered him Grammy ® and Emmy ® nominations, spots at Sundance Film Festival and the Whitney Biennial, and the inaugural American Music Prize, he’s been called “one of today’s more popular musicians of any kind, as well as an ambassador for Los Angeles’s thriving scene” by The New York Times.   Earl Sweatshirt is the virtuosic byproduct of Los Angeles’ fertile ground, where hip-hop sowed its seeds and historic cultural movements were born. The prodigiously gifted writer, lyricist, and producer grew from the zeitgeist from which contemporary collectives in hip-hop today were predicated. And while most movements become fleeting as soon as they arrive, Earl pushed forward, documented his growth and self-discovery on record, and cemented himself as one of the foremost culturally relevant MCs in the game—one who never strayed too far away from his Los Angeles beat-scene roots. His debut album Doris arrived in 2013 and introduced the world to a more realized vision than his seminal mixtape Earl, which was released three years prior when he was just 16 years old. He followed Doris with the critically lauded I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside in 2015, further exploring the depth of his technical dexterity with more swagger than he had on prior releases. Three years later, in 2018, he released Some Rap Songs, the tightly wrought album that found a more self-aware and mature Earl present in his reflections on being in the public eye since he was a teenager, coupled with his reconciling with the death of his father. Enter Feet of Clay, the conceptual 2019 project that continues the written narrative of Earl’s life in today’s societal landscape and worldview in real time.

L.A. jazz master Kamasi Washington

Kamasi Washington brought the lineage of hard bop and spiritual jazz into the 21st century, introducing the genres’ incredible histories to brand-new audiences while building a legacy of his own. His 2024 album Fearless Movement—which included collaborations with George Clinton, André 3000, and Washington’s young daughter, as well as his West Coast Get Down collective—led to more accolades for “one of the premier jazz crossover stars of the past decade” (The Guardian). A recipient of Grammy awards and an Emmy nomination and spots at the Sundance Film Festival and Whitney Biennial, as well as the winner of the inaugural American Music Prize, he and his band chase the spirit of jazz at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Saxofonist

Kamasi Washington

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 8, 2026

Kamasi Washington · Los Angeles Philharmonic

Past events

Nov 15, 2025

Kamasi Washington · San Francisco Jazz

Apr 14, 2025

Kamasi Washington · Brighton Dome

About

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