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 United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Washington has combined a life in music with a life of the mind, and is a scholar of black music and culture, having written several articles and co-written with Farah Jasmine Griffin Clawing at the Limits of Cool, a book about the collaboration between Miles Davis and John Coltrane. He currently serves as professor of Global Jazz Studies and Music at UCLA. He works to combine his artistry and pedagogy with his political conviction that we must work to improve our society with greater justice for all.