KAMASI WASHINGTON & AMI TAF RA

There are few artists in the world who can do what Kamasi Washington does in a room this size. Up close, with Ami Taf Ra beside him, his towering saxophone meets her Moroccan gnawa, Arabic vocals, and gospel-soaked spiritual jazz, and you feel every note.

Some collaborations feel inevitable in hindsight. Ami Taf Ra and Kamasi Washington’s is one of them. This November, the North African, Los Angeles based vocalist and composer joins Grammy winning saxophonist and producer Kamasi Washington for a rare live presentation of Ami’s debut album, The Prophet and the Madman, a project Washington produced and released through Brainfeeder.

The record itself defies easy categorization, and that’s the point. Moroccan Gnawa rhythms meet Arabic musical tradition, gospel, soul, and spiritual jazz, all in service of a meditation on duality, healing, and ancestral memory. Inspired in part by Kahlil Gibran’s writing, the album gives Ami’s operatic, genre defying voice room to move between whispered intimacy and full theatrical release. It’s earned the attention to match: a Libera Award nomination for Best Spiritual Album, a spot on NPR’s Best Songs of 2025 for the track “Gnawa,” and a place among Stereogum’s Best New Artists of 2025.

Onstage, the Ami and Washington partnership becomes something else entirely. Their work together on “How I Became a Madman” captures the tension between inner chaos and clarity better than most records manage in a full tracklist, and that same electricity runs through Washington’s expansive musical universe, an artist whose reach spans jazz, soul, hip hop, and film scoring. Ami brings her own well earned global résumé to the stage, with performances alongside the Dutch Royal Metropole Orchestra, at North Sea Jazz, Blue Note Tokyo, Ronnie Scott’s, the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, and City Winery Boston.

Tickets: $78.00 ~ $102.00 | Use code KAMASI30 at checkout for 30% off.  Offer available while tickets last.