Words by David C. Obenour
For all the ways that we try to navigate, record, and capture music, in its truest form it remains largely ephemeral. Whether performed in a studio or in front of an audience, music is a living and reactive art. It is created by the performers around feeling and the moment. It can be composed, transcribed, and snapshotted but that’s the best we can do. Retelling to varying degrees of success the story of what it was. To put it another way, music is a vibe.
For her part, acclaimed trumpeter Steph Richards has tried to give this force further form and understanding to this vibe through a shared musical language of its performers. Utilizing composition as a starting point, this language gives authority to each member – setting cues for further exploring and improvising.
Power Vibe may only be the starting point but it’s a hell of a place to begin.
Off Shelf: The name of the album and this quartet – quintet? – can you talk about the phrase “Power Vibe”? Where it came from and what about it resonated so that it became the eponymous title?
Steph Richards: The project started out for trumpet, electric viola, electric harp and drumset. The band was mostly women, very electric, and when we premiered, the sound was so heavy, femme-forward and free, I called the band Powervibe. Over time the music/sound/personnel changed but the name stuck. Also, the word “vibe” and philosophy of vibration as a force has become one of my more central identities; being that vibe – ie. gestalt/aesthetic/feeling – is everything. That which can’t be articulated is where it’s most real, in sound and life.
OS: This recording was built through using a series of musical cues understood by all of the players that allow any of you to change a song’s structure. Can you talk about how you came up with and worked to refine this method of playing?
SR: I’ve been interested in flexible, non-linear musical structure ever since I began working with Butch Morris and his Conduction paradigm. What he created was a way of making collectively that was defined and structured exclusively by him, but that the sonic content was supplied by the ensemble, and it was all done in real time via a series of physical cues, a musical sign language of sorts. Over the years, musical notation – as it exists mostly as a linear concept – has continued to feel limiting to me. There is much to appreciate, but there’s no way notation can contain all the possibilities… Butch’s Conduction found a way around that, to be able to respond to the moment without foregoing imposed structure and I’m trying to find that freedom in my own way.
This music exists on one level as a series of notated musical, but, as the band has continued to tour and evolve night after night, all of these pieces aren’t exclusive in and of themselves. They have become less like individual recipes and more like ingredients; a phrase, shape, groove or vibe can be recalled and added and suggested by anyone in the band by simply playing it, in any key or no key and it can completely alter the course of where we want to go. The deeper we get to know the music, the more possibilities we find inside. This melody can live inside another set of changes, these two pieces can be played simultaneously, etc. etc. I’m lucky for my boys, who always seem to read me and understand where we want to go and how we want to throw down.
OS: Knowing that the improvisational style would be central, how much of the songs were composed in advance of recording? What did these early compositions even look like?
SR: Very different from what you’ll hear at a live show! We’d only played one show with this material before we hit the studio so in the session we were doing a lot of realtime experimentation. Each tune was “composed”. There are very detailed scores we had on hand but even in these early times we were recomposing and trying things out during the whole session and in post. Trying things out forwards and backwards, moving sections around…
Also, even the notated stuff was trying to push this linear idea. For example, “Reculez,” has this whole way of navigating the score where you start at the top and every time you hit a certain symbol, you’d have to “rewind” back to the beginning and play it again. So, form was a concept I was working with during the preparations for this session.
OS: What do you appreciate about how your fellow players participate in this structure? What does it allow you to better do as a player yourself?
SR: The sum is greater than its parts. If I could take a page from Miles Davis and his electric years, I’d prefer to credit myself as “directions in music by Steph” instead of music composed by… While there is a lot of predetermined structural input that I can be credited for, the way our live shows are playing out now, the musical result is truly a beautifully collective output and I can’t imagine it any other way.
OS: While it’s always the case, does that same structure mean the songs will continue to evolve as you play them live? Maybe moreso or in a different manner than with other styles of play you’ve done before?
SR: This music is evolving differently than other music I’ve written in the past, to great credit to the flexibility of the music and most importantly to the players translating them. Before Power Vibe, I rarely played the same tune more than once. There was always some sort of edit/change I had to make between shows – much to my bandmates’ chagrin since they had to keep relearning things – but this time around, with these players and this music, we continue to find more possibilities. And since everyone has the freedom to move things wherever they need to, compositionally speaking, by playing aural cues from any of the pieces at any time in the set we keep revealing more things as we play.
OS: The album ends with a live recording of “Supersense” from Bolzano, Italy. What about it made you want to include it with the record? How do you feel it compares or contrasts to the studio recordings?
SR: I wanted to include Bolzano because it helps shed light on where we started in the studio and where we started to go. The Bolzano track contains three different pieces inside of it – while it’s titled “Supersense Live,” we’re actually moving through a Stravinsky piano piece, “Les Cinq Doigts: Lento,” part of “Reculez” and then find our way to “Supersense” near the end. Also, the touring band often has Max on the drums/electronics and he’s become an important part of the sound. There’s an energy to live recordings that is so different from studio records. I know it kind of destabilizes that fourth wall when you switch from studio to live recordings within a record but it was important to include the evolution of our sound.
OS: You also were dealing with major health concerns related to muscular collapse and freezing around the recording of this album. So related to how you are able to perform, did going through that give you a different appreciation to the physicality of playing?
SR: Absolutely! Any musician going through muscular issues knows how terrifying it is, and in the record, I hear myself completely relishing in those physically taxing effects. To this day, I am surprised and joyed by how effortless things can feel, compared to where it used to be. In this record, I found a new face.
OS: Dealing with these concerns meant having to retrain, learn new techniques, and study with other performers. How do you think this has grown or evolved your playing moving forward?
SR: In order to rebuild, I had to do it from scratch. I’m not joking when I say I found a new face. I had to find a new way to play the trumpet, develop new muscles and flexibility and through those very trying years, I learned to truly understand the mechanics of trumpet playing. I kept it under wraps for years. Publicly I’d play on my old face, using my old set up, but in the shed I was working out the new face, helping it become stronger until finally, the new face became my habit, it became me. This record documents such a special, personal moment for me.
OS: I can’t make it any further without saying that this might be my favorite album cover from 2024. Can you talk about how the art came together? What you like about it as the visual introduction for the music?
SR: Man, I am honored to hear that. Thank you! My friend, Aaron Vinton – goes by “Cossa” as credited on the record – he is an incredible artist and designer, he’s done all my records and many film collaborations to date. When I send him the music, I trust him completely. I like it as a visual introduction because, much like our demeanor in live shows, the artwork is fresh, fun, heavy, light… Music is not serious and yet it’s also the most serious thing I can think of. This album cover does that for me.
OS: I think part of how good the album art is comes from it being so well-executed but also feeling of an era that’s not nostalgically “in vogue” currently. Like maybe a respected artist’s album from the ’90s that’s considered questionable and gets put in the discount bin. Does any of that resonate with you? Maybe aside, do you have any meaning around the aesthetic?
SR: Yes, aesthetic in general as well as visual aesthetics. They can make or break a record… visually; thinking back to Miles’ supersonic Bitches Brew vs. On the Corner. The cartoon art, however hip and forward thinking it was for On the Corner made it hard for critics to take it “seriously” at the time. Of course, other reasons also informed this lack of recognition and it has since stood the test of time… but yes, in essence, the visual aesthetic is a daring and powerful gateway into a record.