New York City based saxophonist and composer Logan C. Richardson is a fresh new voice on the alto saxophone. His full, broad sound, wide intervallic leaps, along side of a dense harmonic approach are just the beginning of a description of Logan’s unique sound. Logan’s compositions encompass a whirlwind of different sounds and textures, pulling from various styles traditional and modern.
Coming off of his debut release as a leader, Cerebral Flow, In which he received great praise for.
"Logan Richardson’s saxophone playing is incisive, multi-dimensional and remarkably flexible, wrapping and twisting phrases into unexpected origami shapes.
-(Jazz Times-June'07)
"Logan Richardson’s saxophone playing is incisive, multi-dimensional and remarkably flexible, wrapping and twisting phrases into unexpected origami shapes. In his debut release, Richardson leads a rolling quintet through 10 challenging originals, his convoluted alto and soprano arcing out over choppy waters and then plunging headlong, to stab at Mike Pinto’s shimmering vibraphone or entwine Matthew Brewer’s pulsing bass. Two dynamic drummers, Nasheet Waits and Thomas Crane, anchor five tracks apiece, while guitarist Mike Moreno prowls darkly around the edges."
-Forrest Dylan Bryant- (Jazz Times-June'07)
"Saxophonist Logan Richardson’s debut album Cerebral Flow eschews the derivative character and high gloss aesthetic of recordings by so many other players of his age, and offers music that is fresh, human and uninhibited." -Mark F. Turner- (All About Jazz-NY)
"Logan Richardson’s music is a breath of fresh air. The young saxophonist composes and improvises with an undeniable spirit of musical renewal. The music on Cerebral Flow, Richardson’s debut as a leader, is bold, sophisticated, and uncompromising. The disc portrays a forward thinking, optimistic, vision of a musical world wrought with open ended challenges."-John Barron- (JazzReview.com)
Kansas City, MO is Logan’s place of origin, along with being the stumping grounds for his musical beginnings and early development. He was fortunate to learn from jazz greats thru the Kansas City Jazz Institute, such as: Max Roach, Richard Davis, Ahmad Alaadeen, Shirley Scott, Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry, Frank Foster, Huston Person, Jimmy Owens, T.S. Monk, and Terry Lynn Carrington.
First attending Berklee College of Music (Boston), then The New School University (NYC). Logan was able to hone his skills institutionally while, professionally applying his development on the band stand, in the City along with touring the United States, and Europe with artists such as Jason Moran, Nasheet Waits, Stefon Harris, Joe Chambers, Greg Tardy, Carl Allen, Stanley Cowell, Billy Hart, Josh Roseman, Jeff “tain” Watts, Mark Turner, Mulgrew Miller, Ralph Alessi, to name some artist associations.
Logan is the next breed of musician. Not only as an improviser, composer, and educator, but mechanically. He has studied, and professionally practiced the art form of instrumental woodwind restoration, customization, and repair, which shows a different incite to his approach on the alto horn. Logan, is an undeniable voice, and a breath of fresh air for the future of improvised music, and for the next chapter in sound.
Now, on Greg Osby’s new record label, “INNER CIRCLE MUSIC”, Logan has received great reviews:
"This hard-working young post-bopper, originally from Kansas City, Mo., has a warm, full sound on alto saxophone and a taste for music that makes warmth and fullness feel inevitable. His sophomore album, “Ethos” — recently released on Inner Circle, a label run by the alto saxophonist Greg Osby, who doubled as producer — features original compositions, most of them earnestly contemporary in tone. Mr. Richardson wrote all but one (“Vaal,” by his vibraphonist, Mike Pinto), and while he throws a few busy themes into the mix, the chief feeling is of lyrical calm and flowing propulsion. His band, which goes by the name Shift, features guitar, cello and wordless vocals along with saxophone, vibraphone and drums. (It’s booked Tuesday in the jazz cellar of Bello Sguardo, an Upper West Side restaurant.) The soft glow of the instrumentation frames Mr. Richardson’s playing, which rarely feels reflexive or overworked."-(Nate Chinen- New York Times 2009)
"Saxophonist Greg Osby has been spotlighting young talent for years now, and his new Inner Circle label proffers a handful of upstarts. Logan is an alto adventurer with a seductively quizzical sound, a blend of Ornette glee and Braxton curveball. There's something eerie about the music on the new Ethos, and it gives the disc character. The leader can sound perpetually bittersweet call him the jazz Bon Iver but there's a mercurial motion that's in place as well."(Jim Mancine -Village Voice-Voice Choices 2009)
"Logan Richardson is an enterprising and resourceful young alto player, composer and bandleader. Like his well-received debut, Cerebral Flow (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007), Ethos—also favoring a concept-driven title—shows off Richardson's ample technique and compositions imbued with feeling. His 14 originals move between a variety of tempos, structures and moods, giving a nod to sensible architecture while containing and perhaps even celebrating much looser, experimental freeform elements, marrying skillful restraint with spirited improvisation."-(Laurel Gross- All About Jazz NYC- 2009)
Ethos is the body of work that captures an unchartered territory of timbre, intermingling with a performance of14 emotionally jarring original poetic compositions. ETHOS will show exactly where Logan Richardson has been, and greatly where it all has brought him today. As the definition goes, to properly uphold Ethos, one must be studied, and benevolent about one’s chosen subject. So, this would only be the most appropriate title for this specific outing for Richardson.
Logan Richardson is next in line to carry the torch of vitality for improvised music on the alto saxophone, as well as a composer/conceptualist/educator. He is developing a way to bridge the gap between the typecasting viruses that has infiltrated music as a whole. By compacting various influences from life, including art as reality, with traditional, and modern concepts, a new voice is born in Richardson.
LOOK FOR LOGAN IN THE AUGUST 2009 EDITION OF DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE- HE IS BEING FEATURED IN THE "PLAYERS" SECTION STAY TUNED FOR THE LATEST FROM LOGAN & HIS BAND "SHIFT". THANKS
www.loganrichardson.com
