To say jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington is a Los Angeles fan is an understatement. “I love how big Los Angeles is and how it's like 10 different cities in one,” said Grammy-nominated Washington, who released his third full-length album, “Fearless Movement,” earlier this year. “I love how you can immerse yourself in almost any culture you can imagine.”
In Sunday Funday, the people of Los Angeles tell us step by step their ideal Sunday in the city. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
An Angeleno native, Washington grew up in South Los Angeles, attended Hamilton High School on the West Side and earned a bachelor's degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA. As a student, he toured with rap superstar Snoop Dogg, a reflection of Washington's immense musical talent and a harbinger of good things to come. Only in Los Angeles
After college, Washington and several of his closest friends, including bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, drummer Ronald Bruner Jr., pianist Cameron Graves, trombonist Ryan Porter, and multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, among others, began to perform weekly at the Piano Bar in Hollywood, an engagement that lasted several years. The collective, known as West Coast Get Down, helped revive the once-moribund Los Angeles jazz scene and created a pipeline of young talent. Some members of the group, including Washington, played on rapper Kendrick Lamar's 2015 classic, “To Pimp a Butterfly.” To this day, the friends often tour together and appear on each other's albums.
A rare jazz artist with crossover appeal, Washington has played Coachella and Bonnaroo, averaging about 100 shows a year. But even when he is thousands of miles away, his city, his wife, Fatima, and his four-year-old daughter, Akili, are never far from his thoughts. In a Zoom interview from his Inglewood home, Washington talked about spending a happy Sunday with his family.
8:30 am: Time to wake up
I admit that in my life every day is different, but Sunday is the most consistent for me. I wake up around 8:30 and then have a light breakfast with my wife and daughter.
11:00 a.m.: church bells ringing
My mother likes to take my daughter to church, Tabernacle of the Saints Cogic about jefferson. We'll pick her up around 10. My aunt runs and sings in the choir, and my daughter loves it, she loves singing with them.
I grew up going to church. As I got older, got busy, and went out a lot, it became less constant for me. So when my mom mentioned she wanted to take my daughter to church, it felt good to reconnect on that level. I remember hearing my aunt sing when I was a little girl, so I went there and heard her sing, and I saw how much my daughter enjoys it, and having a sense of community there feels very familiar to me. It's a really small, tiny church, and there's a lot of love among the people.
1:30 pm: New restaurants and old classics
We do a kind of thing where we choose a new area. I recently discovered a huge Japanese community in Gardena that I didn't know about. And that's why I've been finding all these really fantastic restaurants and shops. I love Japanese culture and I'm enjoying finding this new space.
We recently found this really cool Yemeni restaurant in Westwood called Mandi's House. We had two different lamb dishes. They were both great. One of them was cooked underground. It's the first time I've tried Yemeni food and it was very good. Sometimes we go to church to Harold and Bellawhich is New Orleans style food.
3:00 p.m.: Akili's great adventure
After eating, we try to find something that my daughter Akili likes. She likes many different things, but listening to music is what she likes the most. There are plenty of outdoor music events in Los Angeles, especially during the summer months, but really all year round. And we can always just listen to music in a park.
Akili also likes to go to the beach, so sometimes we go Bruce Beach on Manhattan beach. Or we will visit the Natural History Museum. Akili loves dinosaurs and animals. And since he now wants to be an astronaut, he likes space and watching the space shuttle.
This is all fun to me. I mean I'm still quite childish. I also like to look at dinosaur bones.
17:30: Relax
If we went out somewhere and walked a bit, maybe we'd just go out to dinner. There is a great Italian restaurant called Rossoblu in the center where we like to go. There is a restaurant called Verse. It's one of our favorites. There is another place called Holboxwhich is close to USC. Or maybe we'll go to the movies.
Many times we return home to finish the day. If we went to the museum what we like to do is listen to vinyl. I'll let Akili pick some discs. She is quite open and likes jazz artists like Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane. She really likes Michael Jackson right now. His favorite is “Malo.”
7:30 p.m.: 'homemade' red sauce
Both my wife and I are good cooks and during the day we will determine who is going to cook. My specialty is pasta. I make a really good one with red or white sauce, but my red sauce is number one on the menu.
I'm not going to tell you all my secrets, but for a meat sauce it is usually a mixture of different meats like ground beef and maybe with some type of sausage. I use a lot of different peppers, like serrano and bell peppers, and maybe some jalapenos. I'll chop them all up, add them to some tomato paste and some tomatoes. I usually make a hybrid: homemade sauce with prepared sauce. It feels like it's completely homemade, but it's not.
8:30 p.m.: A daughter's story
At around 8:30, it's bedtime for Akili. We will read your story or make up a story together and pass it on. The stories could be about anything. Sometimes it's about her. Sometimes these are imaginary creatures. Akili is quite edgy and usually puts a weird spin on them, like “then the soldier turned into a cloud.”
At 9 she is already asleep. Sometimes Fatima falls asleep with her. Otherwise, we'll go out for a while.
10 p.m.: Kamasi creating
This is when I can write, practice and work on music. I go to the other side of the house and stay there until 1 or 2 in the morning. This is just the time I can do it.
