Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn: Pigments
Richard Gehr on December 21, 2022
New Orleans experimental R&B diva Dawn Richard and composer-bassist Spencer Zahn concoct a sensual world of sound and color on Pigments (Merge)—an immersive experiment in what used to be called “third stream” (neither quite jazz nor classical) music. Their mostly instrumental soundscapes drift and shimmer in arpeggiated hues among a seven-piece group often featuring saxophonist Stuart Bogie and clarinetist Doug Wieselman. Richard pops up regularly to offer a snapshot of fluctuating emotional states ranging from prickliness (“Coral”) and resolve (“Vantablack”) to downright bad vibes (“Cerulean”) before finally smoothly reentering a heady vision of future R&B (“Umber”).
