Live at the Bijou

This live set recorded at Philadelphia’s Bijou is, characteristically for jazz funk sax-man Washington and for his label Kudu, incredibly tight, tidy and slick, to the point where often it’s only the applause between tracks that reminds the listener it’s a band of musicians live on stage rather than the result of overdubbing and multitrack recording. It’s a big album, originally released on double vinyl with an expansive cover, the only Kudu album to ever get such lavish treatment, and it comes with a big, rich sound, and big tracks to match, with this version of his most well-known song “Mr Magic” stretched to twenty minutes. A mix of Washington’s accessible, pleasant-on-the-ears, easy/semi smooth balladry, and his hard grooving, vamp-heavy jazz funk jams, Live at the Bijou draws you in its charm, quality improvisation, relentless grooves and warm, close, hi-fidelity sound, exemplified in the honeyed uplifting jazz funk of one of several album highlights, “Sausalito.”