Logan Richardson: AfroFuturism

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Dominique Sanders
Ryan J Lee
Igor Osypov
Ezgi Karakus
Logan Richardson (as, ky, prog)
Corey Fonville
Laura Taglialatela
Peter Schlamb

Label:

Whirlwind Recordings

April/2021

Media Format:

CD, LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

WR4772

RecordDate:

Rec. date not stated

Alto saxophonist and composer Logan Richardson's take on the Afrofuturist aesthetic mixes spacey jams with his Blues People band into artfully constructed soundscapes using sampled voices, found sounds and layered Ezgi Karakus strings.

Richardson holds the pieces together with a clear composer's vision and dictates mood with bursts of alto sax. Igor Osypov solos on guitar, strings get a feature and Laura Taglialatela delivers vocal R&B.

But for the most part, this is a music of shifting textures and sonic contrasts and virtuosity is held in check.

The album opens with a recording of Stefon Harris bigging up alto sax lineage over hip beats and strings – Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and Kenny Garrett are the names dropped – and then ‘The Birth of Us', mixes grungy guitar with thumpy drums and pared-down alto sax.

Three short pieces come next, establishing the album's sonic range – the triptych opens with electronica and ends with unaccompanied acoustic alto sax. Elsewhere the ballad ‘Light' presents Richardson with his own keyboard support, ‘Farewell, Goodbye' is a vocal elegy for the late McCoy Tyner and ‘Black Wallstreet' references the Tulsa Riots with diamond-cut sax and modern-classical strings.

Band numbers range from the hip-hop driven ‘Trap' and slow-burning ‘Round Up' to the spacey ‘I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Drawn That Way'. Here, Richardson's sax is subordinated to dense textures and resonant sonics that periodically muddy his tone. The vibe is raw, but the effect is surprisingly low key.

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