PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Not wasting any time between Friday and Sunday appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival, Kamasi Washington brought his high-energy band north to the Portsmouth Music Hall for an intense 90-minute performance on Saturday night.

The septet drew hoots, hollers and several standing ovations for a set that confirmed why the leader’s name has been all over rising-star and best-of lists in the last year.

Rooted in a 1970s concept of jazz as an expression of community, but updated with an eclectic blend of musical flavors, Washington’s music reaches for a type of collective emotional release. To experience his music fully is to be taken up and carried along on surging waves of sound.

The 35-year-old has been active on the Los Angeles music scene for years, including doing “crossover” work with Kendrick Lamar and others. But his emergence as a jazz superstar came fast on the heels of the release of his poll-winning CD “The Epic,” from which came the bulk of the pieces offered at the venerable New Hampshire theater.

“Change of the Guard” followed a concert-defining path of solos emerging out of layered harmonic foundations but added booming wah-wah bass from Miles Mosley and emotive vocalise from Patrice Quinn in support of Washington’s full-bore tenor sax solo. “The Message” was another burner, with modal chords from pianist Jamael Dean providing the musical lane for the leader to sprint to the ecstatic peak of his solo.

The standard “Cherokee” had Quinn singing the lyrics once through before the band reassembled the song as a power-funk rumble. Later, drummers Robert Miller and Tony Austin had the stage to themselves for a rapid-fire percussion pas de deux.

“Oscalypso,” in a hard-edged arrangement by trombonist Ryan Porter, employed electronic effects to enhance the sideman’s assertive solo.

Quieter, more lyrical movements were perhaps too rare at this performance. But a brief vocal/piano passage for Quinn and Dean during “The Rhythm Changes” was engaging, as were parts of a soulful “Claire de Lune.” Kamasi’s father, Rickey Washington, came on early to add soprano sax work that also broadened the group’s musical palette.

An affable presence, the younger Washington offered stories of how he met several of the band members when all were children just learning to play music. That helps to explain the friendly, smiling bonds the group displayed on stage and also suggests that the “overnight” success of Kamasi Washington may endure.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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