Angel City Jazz Festival: Milena Casado + Steph Richards Power Vibe

Date: October 12, 2025 @ 8:00 pm

Venue: UCLA Nimoy Theatre
1262 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California+ Google Map
View Venue Website

Tickets: $40 https://angelcityjazz.com/event/milena-casado-steph-richards/

Possible dinner before, TBD

Doors at 7:30pm

8:00pm – Steph Richards Power Vibe
Steph Richards – trumpet
Joshua White – piano
Stomu Takeishi – bass
Max Jaffe – drums

9:15 pm – Milena Casado
Milena Casado – trumpet, vocals, fx
Morgan Guerin – ewi
Lex Korten – piano, synth
Kanoa Mendenhall – double bass
Jongkuk Kim – drums

Called “a revelation” by The New York Times, trumpeter and composer Milena Casado is one of the most compelling new voices in contemporary jazz. Known for her fluid improvisation and deeply personal compositions, she effortlessly moves between acoustic music and electronic experimentation, blending tradition with innovation.
Steph Richards’ latest project Power Vibe is “easily the most emboldened and venturesome statement of her ascendant career.” (AAJ). A hyper-lucid exploration of experimental jazz, electronics and groove.

“...as adventurous and virtuosic as listeners have come to expect…”
– Jazziz

“Richards is easily one of the most exciting brass players in the world, and the personal stakes at the heart of Power Vibe make this her most, pun unavoidable, powerful album yet.“
– Free Jazz Collective

Milena Casado
Called “a revelation” by The New York Times, trumpeter and composer Milena Casado is one of the most compelling new voices in contemporary jazz. Known for her fluid improvisation and deeply personal compositions, she effortlessly moves between acoustic music and electronic experimentation, blending tradition with innovation.
Recently recognized by the Los Angeles Times as a can’t-miss newcomer, Milena Casado is keeping the spirit of jazz moving.

Highlighted as a contemporary jazz artist audiences should know by WBGO, Casado has already generated major buzz through her work with Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Kris Davis, and other guiding forces in the music world, earning critical acclaim.

A notable bandleader in her own right, Casado leads her own working quintet. Backed by this group, Casado recently released her debut album, Reflection of Another Self, on Candid Records.

Reflection of Another Self is a stunning debut—sonically adventurous and deeply personal, a journey of self-discovery and resilience, overcoming personal traumas. It is a bold statement from a newcomer who has been honing her skill with luminaries and biding her time, constructing a debut album fit for someone destined to upend the jazz world.
https://www.milenacasado.com/

Steph Richards
Steph Richards is a dynamic improvisor known for her innovative approach to the trumpet and interdisciplinary expression as a composer. An “innately adventurous trumpeter” (DownBeat), she has collaborated with visionaries Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams and John Zorn as well as art pop luminaries Yoko Ono, St. Vincent, David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.

Characterized by The New York Times as “boldly inventive…Richards composes in ways that standard notation could never document,” her works span interactions with film, poetry, electronics, choreography and scent and have garnered critical acclaim including Record of the Year by The New York Times and DownBeat. Her seminal record Supersense (2019), featuring all-star improvisers Jason Moran, Stomu Takeishi and Kenny Wolleson, includes multimedia artist Sean Raspet creating singular, abstract scents to both inform and converse with the recording.

Her work as an improviser has brought her into contact with progressive voices in jazz and experimental music, including Ravi Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, Mary Halvorson, Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Ingrid Laubrock and Jeff Parker, while her conducting work— informed by the concept of “Conduction” developed by Butch Morris— has taken her to orchestras around the world, where she continues to push the boundaries of musical expression.
https://www.stephrichards.com/