Steph Richards - Supersense - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Bajakian+S Kef, Aram - Aram Bajakianos Kef [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/26/2011

Steph Richards has already made quite a name for herself in the worlds of avant garde music and creative jazz. She has recorded for Relative Pitch and Northern Spy, worked with Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton and Ravi Coltrane and studied with Wadada Leo Smith. As co-producer of the FONT Music Festival, Richards worked for years alongside fellow trumpeter Dave Douglas. Her records have been praised for displaying her evident virtuosity and inventiveness, the New York Times calling Richards Inchboldly inventive.Inch NPR's Nate Chinen says Richards is InchingeniousInch and Downbeat insisted that she is Inchthe latest figure of noteInch in jazz while All About Jazz cuts to the chase, saying simply, that Richards Inchkicks ass.Inch It's an impressive history and litany of praise for a young trumpeter, but with her latest full-length for Northern Spy, Power Vibe, Richards pushes even further, marrying avant garde and cinematic moods with a kind of infectious and patently pleasing tunefulness that is certain to expand her dedicated audience even further. The addition of Inchsensory electronicsInch - subtle but compelling textures and tactile rhythms which are physically triggered by drum-mounted sensors - compels fascination here, interweaving a kind of aural hyper-lucidity throughout the record. Though boldly original, this music strides surefootedly alongside the work of contemporaries like Nicole Mitchell and Rob Mazurek and the late jaimie branch.

This is jazz vocalist Stephanie Nakasian's tribute to June Christy which she was inspired to do after being invited to perform at the Pete Rugolo tribute to Christy at the Jazz West II concert in Newport, CA three years ago. Featuring a carefully chosen selection of songs performed by June during her lifetime, this CD suggests the feel and mood of June Christy's songs, but does not attempt to re-create the original Rugolo charts. Stephanie's wonderful interpretations are assisted by Hod O'Brien, Harry Allen, and Steve Gilmore. All arrangements are by Stephanie Nakasian and Hod O'Brien.