Ronald Bruner Jr.

The Epic

Kamasi Washington · 2015

The EpicThe EpicKamasi Washington · 2015 (2015) was a three-disc statement. That same year Washington contributed saxophone and string arrangements to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, creating a new path for listeners to reach jazz through hip-hop.

— Kamasi Washington on 'To Pimp a Butterfly': 'That Record Changed Music', Complex (Joshua Espinoza), 2018

The Mugician

Keyon Harrold · 2017

Drunk

Thundercat · 2017

Gray Area

Terrace Martin · 2015

Velvet Portraits

Terrace Martin · 2016

Terrace Martin trained as a jazz saxophonist, but in 2015 he helped shape the sound of a landmark hip-hop album, To Pimp a Butterfly. Around the same time he was quietly releasing straight jazz records like Velvet Portraits and Gray Area under his own name, moving between the two worlds with the same hands.

Black Radio

Robert Glasper Experiment · 2012

Heaven and Earth

Kamasi Washington · 2018

Live Today

Derrick Hodge · 2013

Black Messiah

D'Angelo and The Vanguard · 2014

Chris DaveChris Daveクリス・デイヴ appears on 16 albums — Black RadioBlack RadioRobert Glasper Experiment · 2012, Heaven and EarthHeaven and EarthKamasi Washington · 2018, Black MessiahBlack MessiahD'Angelo and The Vanguard · 2014. The drummer called to every genre-crossing session.

Apocalypse

Thundercat · 2013

Drunk

Thundercat · 2017

It Is What It Is

Thundercat · 2020

Drones

Terrace Martin · 2021

The bass on To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) is Thundercat's. Before the jazz and soul world claimed him he had spent his teens and twenties in the crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies — a gig he still held around the time of his own Apocalypse (2013).