04/03/2024
With her latest full-length for Northern Spy, Power Vibe, Steph Richards pushes further, marrying avant garde and cinematic moods with a kind of infectious and patently pleasing tunefulness.
Power Vibe is just as fascinating conceptually as it is aesthetically. The record –– as well as the eponymously named quartet –– is built around a series of musical cues that, when played, redirect all the players to move into a new structure. The trick is that any of the players can play one of these cues at any time, ensuring that the music unfolds in an even more radically democratic way than in totally open-ended improvised music performance. One might think of this as the “power vibe”: the power to redirect the entire band lies in the hands of each player, equally. It’s a cogent redistribution of power, one that Steph Richards and the band clearly revel in, and it gives the music a sense of open structural possibility.
While Richards’ virtuosity and boundless creativity is clearly on display here, pianist Joshua White, whose playing sometimes veers into McCoy Tyner rapture, and drummers Gerald Cleaver and Max Jaffe do more than simply support. Again, there is a sense of commitment and soulfulness that is bolstered by the redistribution of power. And Stomu Takeishi’s acoustic and electric bass guitar playing helps to push these tunes headlong into realms of groove and infectious kinesis that make it what it is: remarkable.
