Celestial sax

The late singer-songwriter and LSD aficionado David Crosby told a wild story of his first time watching saxophonist John Coltrane perform in 1960s New York. Overwhelmed and overstimulated by the ferocity of Coltrane’s band – as well as his acid trip – Crosby found himself taking shelter in the bathroom next to the stage. “And then BAM! Somebody kicks the door open. It’s ’Trane,” he recounted. “He’s playing at the most intense level you can ever imagine in your life. He never stopped soloing, he’s still soloing and he’s burning in this bathroom because it sounds good. He never even saw me. I’m thinking, my nose is gonna open and my brain’s going to pour on the floor. I never heard anybody play more intense.”

On a muggy Sunday afternoon at London’s Royal Festival Hall, 45-year-old saxophonist Kamasi Washington is channeling that bathroom-burning jazz passion. Celebrating the centenary of Coltrane’s birth, Washington is paying homage to his musical forebears, mashing up fiendishly complex compositions like Coltrane’s Giant Steps with the late Sonny Rollins’s frenetic Airegin, blowing so hard through his tenor saxophone you can hear its reed vibrate to the point of almost breaking. The effect is visceral, bolting the 2,700-strong audience to their seats with the energy of Washington’s nine-piece band. 

Read the feature in the Observer.

[This piece was published on 21/06/26]