Lineages 

Even an ensemble known for blazing the chamber music trails of tomorrow must occasionally take a step back, take stock of the innovators whose shoulders we stand on, and gain inspiration to keep pushing the art form. 

Lineages is a celebration of just that: those seminal figures throughout our musical lives who bucked the trends and charged forth through untested musical waters, and brought the rest of humanity with them. From the old greats Beethoven and Bach, to the new greats, Duke Ellington and Craig Taborn, Warp Trio traces their musical lineage through a brief history  improvising and curious musicians not beholden to genre boundaries. 

The Centerpiece of the program, Grounding // Sparks from Brendon Randall-Myers is a modern day amalgamation of hundreds of years of tradition, which the composer poetically details. 

“Grounding // Sparks was written for Warp Trio between June 2020 and September 2021. Over the course of the year I found myself thinking a lot about musical lineages and histories and how they are in conversation with each other, in each of us individually and in each collaboration we do. I found myself asking a lot of questions: Where am I coming from? Where are these performers coming from? How do I honor their talents, their histories, as well as my own? How can we ground ourselves? How can we make something that is both serious and light? How can we make really disparate ideas make sense in the same space

My writing process started with a series of conversations and mixtape exchanges with Warp’s violinist Josh Henderson and pianist Mikael Darmanie. The first movement “Grounding” is based on a two bar chunk of Bartok’s Violin Sonata that Josh sent me, and is also in part a tribute to my teacher Martin Bresnick. The second movement “Sparks” grew out of a wide-ranging exchange with Mikael where we talked Dilla, EDM, Balinese Gamelan, Craig Taborn, Messiaen, Errol Garner, Bach, Meshuggah, Dawn of Midi, and Mahavishnu Orchestra. It’s a virtuosic showpiece that also reflects the threads of endurance and amplification that run through all of my work.”

Lineages Program

Warp Trio - Blam Blam (6 Minutes )

Ludvig Van Beethoven - Piano Trio Op. 18 (20 Minutes)

I. Allegro con brio

II. Adagio

III. Tema con variazioni

Duke Ellington/Warp Trio: Black and Tan Fantasy (6 Minutes)

Warp Trio/Craig Taborn/J.S. Bach - 21 Groove St. (10 Minutes)

- Intermission -

Grounding // Sparks (30 Minutes)

I. Grounding

II. Sparks