A special full evening performance by one of the Twin Cities most versatile musicians. Kevin Washington takes his music to a new level, incorporating Afro-Latin, hip hop and R&B beats to jazz from the past. His work captures the spirit of African and African American music, while making it his own. Anyone who has seen Kevin Washington play the drums knows that he is among the most versatile of jazz musicians – as adept at playing straight-ahead tunes as he is incorporating Afro-Latin rhythms or hip-hop into his sets.

“One minute I’ll be playing funk and you’ll think that’s all I do. And right around in like the next minute — just like that — I can play a bebop song so authentic, you’ll think that’s two different drummers,” Washington said. “People ask me that all the time, ‘how do you do that?’ I just do it. You’ve got to do your homework though. Washington has been dedicated to his art for much of his 40+ years. The son of musical scholars, he went to the New School in New York, studied under drummer Max Roach and has played with stellar performers like saxophonists Antonio Hart and James Carter. He’s also played with elite musicians in the Twin Cities, where increasingly he’s focused on new grooves. RA Spirit is his latest high profile project and encompasses the sum of all his musical and cultural parts. Indeed, the whole exceeds the sum of his parts.