With the release of Power Vibe, NYC-based improvisor, composer, bandleader, and collaborator Steph Richards has guided a striking combination of vigorous abstraction, innovative strategies, and warm melodicism. Trumpet and flugelhorn are her instruments, and joining Richards on the album’s six pieces are Joshua White on piano, Stomu Takeishi on upright bass and electric bass guitar, Gerald Cleaver on drums, and Max Jaffe on sensory electronics and for one track, drums. Accomplished and ambitious, the record is out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Northern Spy.
Having played with such august names as Roscoe Mitchell, the Kronos Quartet, Yoko Ono, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, and Vinny Golia, Steph Richards is a versatile heavy hitter, exactly the sort of player who gets the call to assist high profile figures in the “pop” sphere; for Richards, these artists include David Byrne and St. Vincent.
Contemporary musicians with whom Richards has collaborated include Jason Moran, Kenny Wolleson, Ravi Coltrane, Mary Halvorson, Tom Rainey, Tomeka Reid, Jean Cook, Taylor Ho Bynum, Nicole Mitchell, Tomas Fujiwara, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Filiano, and Nate Wooley. Additionally, she is a founding member of the ensemble Asphalt Orchestra (an offshoot of Bang on a Can).
Power Vibe is her fifth full-length record following Fullmoon (Relative Pitch, 2018), Take the Neon Lights (Birdwatcher, 2019), Supersense (Northern Spy, 2020), and Zephyr (Relative Pitch, 2021), this last set documenting Richards in duo with pianist Joshua White, who returns for Power Vibe. Notably, Richards began recording Zephyr while she was six-and-a-half months pregnant, a reality that illuminates her dedication carrying over into tenacity.
But more importantly, it shows Richards’ willingness (encouragement, even) to allow life experience to shape not just the creation of her art but it’s documentation. It’s an inclination that’s unsurprising given Richards’ abilities as an improvisor. What makes her discography especially worthy of praise is its thematic and conceptual evolution, and simultaneously its unity. And it’s all magnified with impeccable technique.
Richards isn’t a flashy player but she does have a solid handle on deep feeling, and right away in opener “Prey.” There are moments in this track and throughout the record that can bring the beauty moves of Freddie Hubbard or even Art Farmer to mind; at the beginning of the piece White and Cleaver are right there with her.
Tapping into a jazzy feel that’s at times almost ’70s CTI-like, Jaffe’s burbling electronic textures offer an appealing contrast. The rippling electronic surges are right up front in the title cut, though the tide turns jazzy once again, building in intensity as White validates comparisons to McCoy Tyner (interestingly, the cut is dedicated to Wayne Shorter).
“October to July” is moodier, with Richards delivering a killer solo in the back half that sets the table very nicely for the sheer range of expressiveness heard in “Moutons,” which begins quietly and then takes flight, and then “Reculez,” the cut bursting forth with one of Richards’ finest repeated phrases on the record, a very ’70s motif.
Power Vibe closes with a 12-minute live version of “Supersense” where Cleaver is absent, Jaffe switches to drums, Richards stats out playing with a mute, and Takeishi’s effects driven electric bass works overtime to instill a very early ’80s feel. But even without Jaffe’s electronics, the thrust overall is very much of the moment and pushing into the future.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
