Steph Richards w/ Charlie Kohlhase's Explorers Club at Lilypad

“Stephanie Richards’ trumpet sounds like deep space wrapped around your head.” NPR

"Unquestioningly beautiful.” Downbeat

A trumpeter whose “skillset explodes every category.” Nate Chinen/WBGO

Trumpeter Steph Richards weaves between experimental, avant/jazz and contemporary musics with grit and brilliance. She has built a compelling presence in the NYC improvised and experimental scenes, working with masters of the 20th century, from pioneers Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill to cutting edge musicians Jason Moran, Deerhoof artist Greg Saunier, David Byrne, St Vincent and Yoko Ono. Her works have premiered at Carnegie Hall, the Blue-note and Lincoln Center....

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“Stephanie Richards’ trumpet sounds like deep space wrapped around your head.” NPR

"Unquestioningly beautiful.” Downbeat

A trumpeter whose “skillset explodes every category.” Nate Chinen/WBGO

Trumpeter Steph Richards weaves between experimental, avant/jazz and contemporary musics with grit and brilliance. She has built a compelling presence in the NYC improvised and experimental scenes, working with masters of the 20th century, from pioneers Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill to cutting edge musicians Jason Moran, Deerhoof artist Greg Saunier, David Byrne, St Vincent and Yoko Ono. Her works have premiered at Carnegie Hall, the Blue-note and Lincoln Center.

As a follow-up to her “spellbinding” (NPR) debut celebrated by the New York Times as a “bold pronouncement,” trumpeter Steph Richards celebrates her latest project Take The Neon Lights (Birdwatcher records). An avant/jazz expedition of grit and brilliance, this project is takes sounds of city life and explores a spontaneous prose of ugly beauty. Featuring NYC players James Carney on piano, Sam Minaie on bass and Andrew Munsey on drums, the single, titled Brooklyn Machine made the New York Times playlist for 2019, with Nate Chinen’s WBGO calling it “ingenious….Steph Richards is a trumpeter whose skillset explodes every category”.

Richards was most recently proclaimed by the New York Times as one in a crop of "boldly inventive musicians testing the limits of their instruments" after her appearance at New York City's Winter Jazz Fest earlier this year.

About Steph:
Steph Richards has steadily established herself as “one of the most engaging experimentalists” (Free Jazz Collective), having recorded with pioneering artists ranging from Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton and John Zorn to Yoko Ono, David Byrne and St. Vincent. She has also collaborated with performance artists Mike Kelly and Laurie Anderson. Her compositions have been featured on stages at Carnegie Hall, the Blue-note NYC and Lincoln Center and she continues to conduct ensembles with Butch Morris’ Conduction language. Richards is a Yamaha artist.

About her new album Take The Neon Lights:
Following the vivid electronic experiments of her debut record Fullmoon (Relative Pitch), voted #2 for Best Records of 2018 by Jazz Right Now and hailed as “spellbinding" (NPR), Steph Richards follows up with Take The Neon Lights (birdwatcher Records). Conceived as a lyric poem to New York City, her compositions are an arresting exploration of spontaneous prose, woven with grit and brilliance. Titles are named from poems that similarly evoke the city by literary icons Maya Angelou, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg with the title track of set to Langston Hughes’ JukeBox Love Song. Richards leads an acoustic quartet that oscillates between dense complex structures and expansively vulnerable improvisations. Featuring pianist James Carney, bassist Sam Minaie and drummer Andrew Munsey Take The Neon Lights reflects the ugly beauty of the city for which it is dedicated to.

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