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Thursday, July 5, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS

Heaven and 
Earth

Kamasi Washington

Young Turks

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

Jazz can be a little confusing. 
Since its roots in the early 1920s, 
listeners’s definitions of jazz have 
since changed drastically. Known as 
one of the only true original Ameri-
can artforms, its ever expanding 
characteristics 
and 
development 
of subgenres are truly daunting. 
This might contribute to why many 
older generations believe the genre 
is on the way out. However, millen-
nial favorite Sebastian from “La La 
Land” might have been overreact-
ing a bit when he said that jazz is 
dying. Kamasi Washington’s newest 
album, Heaven and Earth, is a pris-
tine example of how jazz is thriving.
The album itself is huge: Span-
ning just over two and a half hours, a 
full listen is certainly a commitment. 
However, even after my first full lis-
ten, I never found myself dozing off. 
Although there are a few tracks that 
don’t hit as hard as others, they all 
hold their own unique characteris-
tics.
There are three sections to the 
album. The first section, “Earth,” 
represents “the world as I see it 
outwardly, the world that I am part 
of,” Washington explained prior to 
the release of the album. The sec-
ond half, “Heaven,” represents “the 
world as I see it inwardly. Who I am 
and the choices I make.” However, a 
week after the release of the album, 
Washington released an EP titled 
The Choice, with a similar cover to 
Between Heaven and Earth. Appar-
ently, this release was included with 
physical copies of the album, but was 
recently released digitally. It fits well 
in the overall context of the album, 
but brings about new musical con-
cepts (as well as a Carol King and a 
Five Stairsteps cover).
The tracks are at once dense and 
transparent. Heaven and Earth is so 
different, much like Washington’s 
previous full-length album, The Epic, 

from any other jazz album I’ve ever 
heard, and this is largely thanks to 
the wide range of tonalities achieved 
through varying instrumentation.
From the very get-go, a full 
orchestra and choir accompany a 
full rhythm section to create an 
overwhelming sheet of sound that 
is harmonically rich and full within 
the first 30 seconds of the opening 
track, “Fists of Fury.”
Without getting into the ongoing 
debate over what constitutes as jazz, 
I will say that this album does take 
a lot of notes from jazz albums of a 
varying character. Not only does he 
directly reference the likes of Fred-
die Hubbard or Ron Porter (who’s 
also featured on the album), but 
in his compositions and solos, it’s 
easy to see how artists like Wayne 
Shorter, Thundercat, Chris Potter 
and even Max Roach influenced his 
work.
This choir and orchestra are so 
unique and characteristic of Wash-
ington’s music, but even when 

they’re not used, tracks like “Hub-
Tones” and “The Invincible Youth” 
feel full by taking on different styles 
and bringing other instrument 
groups to shine. On “The Invin-
cible Youth,” for example, Cameron 
Graves and Thundercat’s playing 
truly shines and fills a space that 
feels appropriate and rich.
The “Heaven” section of the 
album was where this album really 
differed from some for Kamasi’s 
previous work. Tracks like “The 
Space Travelers Lullaby” and “Song 
for the Fallen” truly went in direc-
tions I was not anticipating, and they 
fit the inward direction Washing-
ton strived for. “Show Us the Way” 

is an interesting callback to The 
Epic’s opening track, “Change of the 
Guard,” and the closing track, “Will 
You Sing,” is a fantastic closer that 
sums up the album’s themes nicely.
However, sometimes these grand 
instrumentations presented in the 
album feel undeserved. These epic 
moments seem to pop up in every 
other track, and they seem to con-
sume the track. Don’t get me wrong, 
the choir and orchestra sound abso-
lutely breathtaking, but because 
they hit hard right in the beginning, 
middle and end, the album reaches 
several climaxes without subjecting 
the listener to any other experience.
Along with this, Washington’s 
solos sometimes feel similarly struc-
tured. They’re technically and artis-
tically amazing. As a saxophonist 
myself, I’m blown away by his sound 
and technique. However, they often 
take the same direction throughout 
songs and utilize the same extended 
techniques every time. They’re mind 
blowing solos, but it feels like my 
mind is being blown in the same way 
every song.
These complaints may seem real-
ly petty, and that’s because they are. 
This album as a whole feels like a 
complete sonic stroke of genius. The 
fact that Washington can yet again 
create an album lasting over two and 
a half hours while keeping the mate-
rial fresh and consistent is certainly 
an accomplishment.
While many see Washington’s 
music as the resurgence of jazz 
in American popular culture, I 
wouldn’t quite say that myself. Jazz 
has been growing and advancing 
since its conception and continues 
to do so today, even before Kamasi 
rushed onto the scene. However, 
because of Washington’s forward 
thinking and collaboration through-
out generes, Heaven and Earth is an 
album that sets new standards for 
modern jazz musicians (and every 
other musician, for that matter) for 
years to come.

Kamasi Washington rises 
on new ‘Heaven and Earth’

MUSIC REVIEW

YOUNG TURKS

RYAN COX
Daily Arts Writer

STEPHEN SATARINO
Daily Arts Writer

François 
Truffaut’s 
1962 
romance 
“Jules 
and 
Jim” 
chronicles the development of 
a tragic love triangle between 
three European writers through 
the first half of the 20 century. 
Best friends, the German Jules 
(Oskar Werner, “Fahrenheit 451”) 
and the French Jim (Henri Serre, 
“The Fire Within”), each stumble 
helplessly in love with the beautiful 
Catherine (Jeanne Moreau, “The 
Lovers”) and all her dangerous 
eccentricities. Told in three acts 
that each take place years apart, 
Truffaut uses benchmarks like 
the first World War and Jim’s 
disappearing French mustache to 
indicate that time has passed.
Telling the story spread out over 
time is a step away from the fast-
paced, almost real-time standard 
of the New Wave, becoming 
reminiscent — ironically, due to the 
whole pretense of the movement 
— of a book. Instead of explaining 
the thoughts and desires of its 
characters through the limited 
scope of one or two insulated 
incidents, “Jules and Jim” shades 
toward showing the development 
of the characters over the course 
of their lives, more like “Les 
Misérables” 
than 
“Breathless.” 
And the presence of history even 
gives the film the same feeling 
of weight as something like “Les 
Mis,” turning it into a story about 
much more than just love turned 
sour. “Jules and Jim” has the 
atmosphere of a big film.
Despite all the great set-up, 
the love triangle that drives the 
narrative doesn’t satisfy. Jules and 
Catherine marry initially, but she 
doesn’t stay loyal to him for very 
long. By the time he has returned 
from the war, they have their first 
child and she has turned cold. 
Catherine’s infidelities are declared 
with the same lack of gusto with 
which someone might announce 
they have buttered a piece of toast. 
It’s hard to do justice to how passé 

the characters respond. It really 
just feels like Jules and Jim don’t 
care that the woman they are so 
dedicated to doesn’t seem to give a 
damn about them.
The frustrating part is how 
near-perfectly the love triangle is 
laid out. When Catherine begins 
to slide out of love with Jules, there 
should be tension. Instead, Jules 
resigns himself to living across 
the hall with his entomology 
work, asking Jim to love her so 
he can continue to see her in his 
life. But I have to stress: There’s 
an absence of emotion in any of 
these interactions. Jules has no 
resentment for either his best 
friend or his wife, who his best 
friend is trying to conceive a child 
with. It’s an absolute whiff.
And even as Catherine continues 
her 
adulterous 
tour-de-France 
outside of the two friends, neither 
rise to question her, as though 
they’re so captivated, so in love, 
that they can’t say a word. I don’t 
buy it. The film lacks the passion it 
needs to pull off the circumstances 
it sets up.
It’s not all loss. “Jules and 
Jim,” though unable to resonate 
emotionally 
with 
me, 
is 
unquestionably a beautiful film. 
Truffaut seemed to have developed 
as a photographer in the two 
years since his debut feature “400 
Blows,” his eye for composition 
almost unmatched here. And if 
not 
quintessential 
New 
Wave 
in its narrative approach, “Jules 
and Jim” can sit comfortably as a 
revolutionary picture by its drive to 
experiment. At times shrinking to a 
pinhole or expanding from a point, 
Truffaut’s frame takes the viewers’ 
eyes on a carefully manicured 
tour of European countrysides 
and tempered city vistas. The 
director even goes so far as to 
halt the picture altogether with a 
few momentary freeze-frames on 
Catherine’s face, as though burning 
her image into the film-reel as it is 

Riding the New 
Wave: Volume 4

FILM COLUMN

