Softly… Wild… And Something Else

Johnny Richards was a man of convictions. Hearing the Richards aggregation, one can feel the leader’s expansive expressiveness working. His main goal was the creation of interesting, stimulating music, not music of any particular kind. “We are an ORCHESTRA, not a band of sections; an organized orchestra of interested and interesting musicians who play a music of many dimensions and feelings.” Richards once said: “Our music is ambitious. That explains why our instrumentation is not exactly standard. Although we are a jazz orchestra, this does not mean that other musical forms and rhythms cannot be incorporated into our music. After all, music is expressed in many languages. We should be aware and learn from that.”