The American saxophonist based in Paris, Logan Richardson, released interesting albums in the past to make us curious about his next step. Shift, his Blue Note debut, was recorded with the illustrious Pat Metheny, Jason Moran, Harish Raghavan, and Nasheet Waits, but the new album, Blues People, features a new band whose exploration of sound allows a sensible coexistence between post-bop, blues, hard rock, hip-hop, and electronica.
Throughout the 14-song repertoire, a past and present reflection on black people’s lives, he fuses all these genres, gaining a unique perspective through the involving musicality of guitarists Justus West and Igor Osypov, electric bassist DeAndre Manning, and drummer Ryan Lee.
“Hidden Figures” starts with periodic …show more content…
The song is enhanced with a bolder rhythm, having alto sax improvs over cyclic guitar riffs. The methodology used here is practically transferred to “Pure Change”, where the vigor of the rock drumming and guitar infusions are dominant, while melodious sax lines keep hovering on top. An assemblage of several ostinatos creates a lively urban portrait.
Both “Country Boy” and “Black Brown Yellow” feature acoustic guitar. Whereas the former adds electronic-like effects and slide guitar for a country blues experimentation, the latter initially embraces vocal layers and bowed bass within a classical romanticism that later reshapes in order to incorporate rich and rounded guitar licks suggestive of the heavy metal style. Also “The Settlement” brings up a neoclassical metal feel, more euphonious than far-out.
Almost falling in a dark electronic hum, “Underground” does justice to its title, with the band mystifying our ears through the use of a bass pedal, disrupted rhythms, transverse guitar noise, and an effect-infused saxophone. The flux of cross beats also works well on “Hunter of Soul”, where vibes and drones are intensified to obtain intriguing textures, only attenuated by the bandleader’s melancholic
Throughout the 14-song repertoire, a past and present reflection on black people’s lives, he fuses all these genres, gaining a unique perspective through the involving musicality of guitarists Justus West and Igor Osypov, electric bassist DeAndre Manning, and drummer Ryan Lee.
“Hidden Figures” starts with periodic …show more content…
The song is enhanced with a bolder rhythm, having alto sax improvs over cyclic guitar riffs. The methodology used here is practically transferred to “Pure Change”, where the vigor of the rock drumming and guitar infusions are dominant, while melodious sax lines keep hovering on top. An assemblage of several ostinatos creates a lively urban portrait.
Both “Country Boy” and “Black Brown Yellow” feature acoustic guitar. Whereas the former adds electronic-like effects and slide guitar for a country blues experimentation, the latter initially embraces vocal layers and bowed bass within a classical romanticism that later reshapes in order to incorporate rich and rounded guitar licks suggestive of the heavy metal style. Also “The Settlement” brings up a neoclassical metal feel, more euphonious than far-out.
Almost falling in a dark electronic hum, “Underground” does justice to its title, with the band mystifying our ears through the use of a bass pedal, disrupted rhythms, transverse guitar noise, and an effect-infused saxophone. The flux of cross beats also works well on “Hunter of Soul”, where vibes and drones are intensified to obtain intriguing textures, only attenuated by the bandleader’s melancholic