Logan Richardson

LoganRichardson joins the SJW faculty for the first time this year. We’re super excited to have Logan available to work with SJW students, as he’s one of the most forward-thinking artists in jazz. His discography and list of collaborators will give you an idea of the huge impact he’s having on the world of jazz.

The saxophonist hails from Kansas City, Missouri, a city with a rich historical lineage of improvised music. By the age of 16 Logan was performing professionally, and at 19 he left for Boston to attend the Berklee School of Music, followed by a move to New York City to attend the New School University on a full Scholarship. In New York, Logan began performing, recording, and touring internationally with artists including Joe Chambers, Billy Hart, Butch Morris, Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, and Jason Moran.

During the course of his career, he has participated in several Grammy nominated projects, including Christian Scott’s “Ancestral Recall” and Gerald Clayton’s “Life Forum” and “Live at the Village Vanguard”, and he has released five albums as a leader. 2007’s “Cerebral Flow” (Fresh Sound, New Talent) and 2008’s “Ethos” (Inner Circle Music) have quickly become a manifest for modern jazz. In 2016 Logan released his Blue Note Records debut “Shift” featuring an impressive band of musical visionaries including guitarist Pat Metheny, pianist Jason Moran, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Nasheet Waits.

In 2018 he inaugurated the Blues PEOPLE project with a self-titled album (Ropeadope). The band has been featured on NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’, as well as topping out on the best 100 songs of the year for ‘Anthem (to Human Justice).’ In addition, blues PEOPLE was number three on the New York Times ‘Best Jazz Albums of 2018’.

In 2020 Logan released “Afrofuturism” (WAX Industry – Whirlwind Recordings), a genre-defying work that won plaudits for its eclecticism, and marks his fearlessly open-minded embrace of the contemporary sounds of the global diaspora and his keen gaze towards the future.

Since the beginning of his career, he has extensively toured, performed, administered workshops internationally, and taught at major universities, including the New School in NYC and the Hancock Institute in LA.

Richardson is releasing his next album “Holy Water” in March 2023, and an ancestral-themed trilogy in the fall.