The musicians I really looked up to as a kid were the ones who could play everything. — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
By the time I was about 15, I was out playing gigs and knew I was going to be a musician. — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
At a certain point, when there's a barrier between you and what's right, eventually you have to decide you're not going to… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
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 Drums Copy Share Image
This precious thing of empathy and love and understanding is something we have to hold and appreciate and protect. — Kamasi Washington Empathy Copy Share Image
My hope is that witnessing the beautiful harmony created by merging different musical melodies will help people realize the beauty in our… — Kamasi Washington Beautiful Copy Share Image
There's this notion that music has to be confined to some small, simple place to be popular, something I never believed. — Kamasi Washington Music Copy Share Image
I like living on that edge, musically. I like a bit of insecurity and that feeling of not really knowing what's going… — Kamasi Washington Edge Copy Share Image
Malcolm X's separatist ideas were situational. If you think about where African-Americans were in the 1940s and 1950s, we needed to step… — Kamasi Washington Clarity Copy Share Image
We've now got a whole generation of jazz musicians who have been brought up with hip-hop. We've grown up alongside rappers and… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
When I was younger... we used to go to this place called Rexall to play 'Street Fighter.' At Rexall, there would be… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
When I was working on 'To Pimp A Butterfly' and 'DAMN.,' I'm really making music for Kendrick. It's a different mindset than… — Kamasi Washington Butterfly Copy Share Image
Every day we're here is an opportunity to do what we can to make the world right, to help someone close or… — Kamasi Washington Day Copy Share Image
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 Day Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The idea of the beauty of diversity came from just growing up where I grew up. Los Angeles is a very big… — Kamasi Washington Beauty Copy Share Image
Fela Kuti blew my mind. His playing is very unorthodox, but I learned how to appreciate that. — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
I think the reason why I see life as this never-ending struggle is because I imagine it having endless potential. — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
I can't really worry about nuclear war any more than I can worry about the aliens coming. — Kamasi Washington Fear Copy Share Image
'Harmony of Difference,' to me, was an opportunity to celebrate one another. And 'Fists of Fury' is an opportunity for us to… — Kamasi Washington Anger Copy Share Image
I think people psych themselves out before they listen to jazz a lot, thinking that they have to, like, put on a… — Kamasi Washington Jazz Copy Share Image
Isaac Smith sounded like Curtis Fuller, Corey Hogan sounded like Sonny Rollins, Terrace Martin sounded like Jackie McLean. Already, at 13, 14, 15 years old. — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
I don't want to live my life to necessarily overcome struggle, but when I am going to hit struggle throughout my life,… — Kamasi Washington Adversity Copy Share Image
I have to always check back in with my imagination just to remember that I have this infinite potential, and I can… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
When you're making music, you're creeping up on your heart and pouring it out into something. — Kamasi Washington Heart Copy Share Image
My dad was really into avant garde jazz: Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. — Kamasi Washington Archie Copy Share Image
I used to tell my friends, 'Art Blakey is way more gangster than Eazy-E!' I ended up getting my friends into jazz,… — Kamasi Washington Art Copy Share Image
If you look up, and you see that all of a sudden the world is really coming down on people with brown… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
Gerald Wilson was one of my mentors: he was in his nineties before he passed and, literally, every time I saw him,… — Kamasi Washington Amazing Copy Share Image
L.A. is a big city that has a lot of music in it but is not necessarily known for it. A lot… — Kamasi Washington Big city Copy Share Image
People have been starving for intellectual fodder, but the best way to get people to close their eyes and not say anything… — Kamasi Washington Best way Copy Share Image
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 Beautiful Copy Share Image
I was hearing music in my head and trying to play it on the clarinet, but it didn't match.' Then, literally the… — Kamasi Washington Day Copy Share Image
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 Jazz Copy Share Image
I grew up with a sense of music being a very spiritual experience while playing in church and with parents who were… — Kamasi Washington Church Copy Share Image
At the time of 'The Epic,' as a core band, we were all spending so much time apart making music for other… — Kamasi Washington Art making Copy Share Image
I've known that about myself, that I've had two sides: one that's pretty tactical, down to earth, aware. There's also a really… — Kamasi Washington Down to earth Copy Share Image
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 Beautiful Copy Share Image
When I first played some Coltrane-type stuff on the 'Pimp a Butterfly' sessions, Kendrick got it immediately. 'I want it to sound… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
When I started saxophone, my dad took me to my uncle's church, and I started playing there, too. At its best, music… — Kamasi Washington Copy Share Image
