Dr. Salim Washington is a composer and multi instrumentalist, playing tenor sax, flute, oboe and bass clarinet. He has played and recorded with many of the luminaries of the art form, and has been featured in festivals and other venues throughout the globe. Washington has combined a life in music with a life of the mind, and is a scholar of black music and culture. Washington came of age in Detroit with early exposure to music in the African American Pentecostal tradition of the Church of God in Christ where his father was a pastor.
He began his career by playing with Worlds Experience Orchestra, led by Jamyll Jones, and SOLAR (Source of Life Arkestral Revelation). He remained active as a performer, writer, activist and family man while completing his PhD at Harvard in 2000 (writing a dissertation on John Coltrane).
Washington moved to New York and performed internationally while continuing to ground his artistry in black audiences and music practices. Having a long – time connection with South Africa, Washington was invited to teach at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in 2009 as a Fulbright Scholar and Artist. He spent the next few years actively performing, writing and teaching while continuing to make visits to South Africa. In 2012, he became a full-time professor in the Music Department at UKZN. Washington continues a robust performance career while serving as Chair of the Global Jazz Studies Program at UCLA.
