Under the Stars: Mr. Washington blows into town

Well, hello lovers of music and culture. We are Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and other adjacent items.

KAMASI WASHINGTON, SAT/15 AT GOLDEN GATE THEATER

Buckle up! Kamasi Washington’s kind of a supernova. One that dazzles numerous crowds at once without shedding one milliliter of the blazing output. He didn’t just rebrand what was expected of contemporary jazz players; he sent sax players back into the woodshed to sharpen that competitive blade. Would we hear the likes of Lakecia Benjamin’s tropical storm of funk and R&B infused into the traditional idiom—or witness the proto-punk metal-jazz heat of James Brandon Lewis—without Washington’s singular tenor sax oeuvre? Nah. Kamasi upped t