The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded the 2024 Spring Music Grant to Grant Richards for the album “Orbits Trio”.

Grant Richards is an award-winning jazz pianist, composer, and educator. A native of Portland, Oregon, Grant began playing piano at the age of eight. By the time he entered college, he had won four Student Music Awards from Downbeat Magazine and recorded his first album as a leader. In 2009, Grant enrolled at Berklee College of Music on a full-tuition Jimmy Lyons Scholarship. He has since shared the stage with Grammy® award-winning artists Esperanza Spalding, Eddie Gomez, and Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as luminaries Simon Phillips, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Valerie Simpson.

After releasing his second studio album Numinous, Grant moved to Japan for nearly three years where he taught at an international music school and performed often in the vibrant Tokyo music scene. Upon his return to the US, he moved to New York City and shortly thereafter acted as the Musical Director for the 2019 Jacob’s Pillow Tap Program led by Dormeshia and Michelle Dorrance in collaboration with renowned artist faculty including Dianne Walker, Brenda Bufalino, Derrick K. Grant, Jason Samuels Smith, Maria Torres, and Sam Weber. In 2021, Richards — a pianist deeply immersed in bebop and the blues — lead his music in a bold and emergent new direction with his album, Ballyhoo, an Afro-Cuban celebration named as one of the best releases of 2021 by Jazziz critic Mark Holston.

Since then, Richards has established a new quartet featuring some of NYC’s most in-demand musicians: Daniele Germani on saxophones, Simón Willson on bass, and Adam Arruda on drums. Brimming with creative momentum on the heels of their 2022 release, One and Done, Grant expanded his quartet to include two esteemed New York jazz veterans: saxophonist Dayna Stephens and trumpeter Scoa Wendholt. The resulting powerhouse sextet won a New Jazz Works Grant from Chamber Music America in 2023 and has performances and recordings planned for 2024-2025.

Currently, Grant resides in Brooklyn where he maintains an active performing and teaching schedule in the city. In addition to his sextet, Grant has an exciting release scheduled for 2024, Menagerie, a vast collaborative songwriting project straddling the line between jazz, pop, and neo-soul which features a host of talented vocalists and musicians living in the NYC area.

The Brooklyn-based trio is a collective specializing in contemporary improvised music steeped in the jazz tradition. Grant Richards along with bassist John Sims, and drummer Roberto Giaquinto, frequent collaborators, have developed a tight sound and cohesive dynamic through their time playing together.

The new album will showcase an extensive body of new repertoire exploring the concept of coaction, the process of two or more things or people working together, especially to have an effect or achieve something. For this project, Grant plans to expand the trio’s instrumentation with woodwinds and strings on select pieces, creating dynamism through new tonal palettes and textures, as well as exploring technical aspects including odd meters, variable forms, tempo changes, and collective improv.

Please visit Grant’s website, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube for more information.