Song Quotes by Kamasi Washington

Jazz is a part of me.

— Kamasi Washington

All John Coltrane's records are amazing.

— Kamasi Washington

Music is an expression of life, who you are, and what you've been through.

— Kamasi Washington

I feel like I'm musically free to do what I want.

— Kamasi Washington

Jazz is like a telescope, and a lot of other music is like a microscope.

— Kamasi Washington

So much good music has been looked over because of preconceived notions of genre.

— Kamasi Washington

My dad was really into avant garde jazz: Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

— Kamasi Washington

I think people psych themselves out before they listen to jazz a lot, thinking that they have to, like, put on a…

— Kamasi Washington

I started playing drums at three, then piano at five, then clarinet. But it wasn't till I picked up a saxophone aged…

— Kamasi Washington

By the time I was about 15, I was out playing gigs and knew I was going to be a musician.

— Kamasi Washington

I used to play until 4 o'clock in the morning.My dad would go nuts - he'd scream and say the cops are…

— Kamasi Washington

I've had experiences where people say, 'I hated jazz before I heard you guys!"I'm like, 'You didn't hate jazz before you heard…

— Kamasi Washington

As musicians, we have one of the greatest tools of bringing people together in music.

— Kamasi Washington

Whenever my dad wasn't practicing, he was listening to music. He had an amazing jazz collection, and my mom had stuff like…

— Kamasi Washington

Funk could very easily be called jazz, but you call it funk. Does that really matter? People dig that they associate themselves…

— Kamasi Washington

The fact of the matter is that nobody understands what John Coltrane is doing except John Coltrane. And maybe not even him.…

— Kamasi Washington

Music is this medium to express who I am and what I've been through and my thoughts and what my feelings on…

— Kamasi Washington

When I was about seventeen, I had a group called the Young Jazz Giants. We played all originals. When we would finish…

— Kamasi Washington

We've played so many places where, if you asked people, 'Do you like jazz?' they would be like, 'Not at all.' But…

— Kamasi Washington

My dad was a professional musician; my mom played, too, but just for fun. All my siblings played. The house was full…

— Kamasi Washington

People like to compartmentalise music, especially African-American music, but it's really one thing. One very wide thing. I mean, it's like all…

— Kamasi Washington

A legacy is a lot of times determined by how people accept your music. And sometimes people's legacy starts late or starts…

— Kamasi Washington

There were two things I discovered when I toured with Snoop. One was that the band was all jazz musicians. The second…

— Kamasi Washington

My dad's also a musician, so jazz was always around the house. When I was 11, I developed an interest in it,…

— Kamasi Washington

The song 'Leroy and Lanisha' on my album 'The Epic' is really my homage to 'Linus and Lucy.'

— Kamasi Washington

I'm trying to just keep pushing on the things I've been wanting to do in my life and in music. And think…

— Kamasi Washington

One of the things I did learn from 'The Epic' was that we don't have to feel so much pressure to conform…

— Kamasi Washington

We learned at a young age, with our dad, that even if you weren't doing something, you had to look like you…

— Kamasi Washington

At the time of 'The Epic,' as a core band, we were all spending so much time apart making music for other…

— Kamasi Washington

In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm just taking the music that comes to me and trying to make it…

— Kamasi Washington

People need to realize that even the greatest jazz musicians, when they listen to jazz, they're not like, analyzing it and deconstructing…

— Kamasi Washington

There's a whole stereotype of the jazz musician that's into poetry and reading and metaphysics and all that stuff. Really, it's a…

— Kamasi Washington

My third day playing saxophone, I was in front of a congregation. I still didn't know the names of all the notes.…

— Kamasi Washington

Jazz is an interesting music. It's one of the few forms of music where everyone that's performing the music has a creative…

— Kamasi Washington

Even the greatest musicians, they only represent themselves. You represent who you are and what your experiences are and what you have…

— Kamasi Washington

As a musician, your instrument is almost predetermined. I had played drums, piano, clarinet, but when I heard Wayne Shorter play the…

— Kamasi Washington

If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really…

— Kamasi Washington