Salim Washington

Though Salim Washington has yet to achieve widespread national recognition, the tenor saxophonist and flutist has cultivated a devoted local audience in Boston through his emotionally charged post-bop playing. Originally from Detroit rather than New England, he relocated eastward for studies at Harvard University and, after marrying viola player Melanie Dyer, chose to settle permanently in the city. He soon became a familiar presence in Roxbury, the largely African-American neighborhood where he assembled the nine-piece Roxbury Blues Aesthetic. The ensemble has featured his wife alongside trumpeter Waldron Ricks, reedman Henry Cook, and drummer Bobby Ward. While the group channels blues feeling, it operates outside strict blues conventions, favoring instead a spiritually inflected, instrumental post-bop language that reflects Washington’s deep regard for John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, George Adams, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Yusef Lateef. His debut recording as a leader arrived in 1997, when he entered the studio with the Roxbury Blues Aesthetic to produce Love in Exile for Accurate. Although no further albums appeared during the remainder of the decade, Washington maintained an active presence on the Boston scene as the early 2000s began.