Andrew Richards, 'The August Session'

(Self-released, digital)

“Andalucian Love,” the first track on Burlington native Andrew Richards’ new LP The August Session, establishes an immediate sense of setting. Moshe Elmakias’ flowing piano run evokes the sights and sounds of summer in the city: sunlight reflected off cars parked on busy streets, the mingling of birdsong and street noise. This is jazz meant for scoring life on the move.

Richards’ second full-length record — a follow-up to his 2023 self-titled debut — continues the vocalist’s collaboration with Elmakias, an Israeli pianist and composer living in New York City. It’s a potent mix of musicianship. Elmakias’ subtle yet dexterous playing perfectly accompanies Richards’ classically smooth voice.

That voice glows from the marquee. Richards’ vocal tone has plenty of jazz crooner in it, but he roughs it up with a gravelly edge on the odd note, adding that special spice of grit. On “Ocean In Between,” a velvety-smooth, late-night-at-the-jazz-club number, Richards seems to stretch his tenor over Elmakias’ playing like a tarp over a boat wintering at the marina.

Richards decamped to Brooklyn after graduating from the University of Vermont in 2016. As The August Session indicates, the move has only augmented his songwriting. The subtle mixtures of pop, folk and even samba rhythms (“My Little Suede Shoes”) that dot the album display a growing mastery of his own sound.

Such is Richards’ confidence on the record that he takes a swing at classic rock and roll’s two great monoliths: the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, covering “Eleanor Rigby” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” respectively. The latter has such an elegiac, tender feel that it honestly might fit better over the funeral scene in the 1983 film The Big Chill than does the original track.

Rounding out the trio, New York City saxophonist Stacy Dillard provides equal measures of buttery sax runs and earthy growls, landing somewhere between Charlie Parker and Gato Barbieri. His color on tracks such as “The Riddle” and “Why Can’t I Fall In Love” completes the triumvirate that he, Richards and Elmakias form over the course of the record.

The trio rarely lingers in one place, moving effortlessly from a pensive, building song such as “Blue Black Ribbon” to the breezy summer romanticism of “Divine.” The record’s seamless blend might be a testament to its live feel; the three musicians cut the album in a single, five-hour live session at Big Orange Sheep studio in Brooklyn. That in-the-pocket quality adds just the right amount of vitality.

The August Session is a new high-water mark for Richards in his young recording career. Fittingly, he’ll return home for a performance during the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival on Saturday, June 8, at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge in Burlington.

The August Session is available on Spotify.