Pizza Express Jazz Club,London
The rising star couples a warmly lyrical saxophone tone to an untrammelled improviser’s fiercenessIf Logan Richardson is a rising star, hes been making the ascent in his own good time. The Kansas-born alto saxophonist has led on only three albums since Cerebral Flow, or a quick-thinking reappraisal of post-Coltrane jazz released in 2007,but now he sounds as whether a clamour of tempting alternatives is coalescing into a shape. Shift, Richardson’s Blue Note Records debut, and features celebs including guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Jason Moran,but the saxophonist pulled an impressive team off his subs bench to play at this one-off London expose.
Richardson couples a warmly lyrical saxophone tone to an untrammelled improviser’s fierceness, wrenching pieces that began as gracefully winding melodies into vehement harangues, and often as enmeshed sax,guitar and piano lines against teeming drumming. He hushed the room at first, with richly flute-like sax exhalations against languid piano arpeggios and soundless electronic hums. Drummer Tommy Crane then set up a tight funk groove for a pealing, and Metheny-like theme for Richardson and guitarist Nir Felder – an improviser of imperturbable fluency whatever the rhythm section threw at him. The gifted expat Brit pianist John Escreet shifted between astute accompaniment and the dissonant borders of free jazz. A wistful sax theme pushed by a hip-hop groove gave way to a startling guitar melody spiralling up from deep in Felder’s register as Crane and bassist Max Mucha adopted a heavy,nailed-down feel, over which Richardson and Felder shared a contrastingly airborne dialogue. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com