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.
