Tao 48

Pianist/composer Conrad Tao's third Warner Classics album, entitled American Rage, traces the roots of rebellion from the 1930s Harlan County labor disputes, through the trauma of 9/11, to the deep divisions of the present day. Bookended by two expansive works by Frederic Rzewski - Which Side Are You On?, based on Florence Reece’s 1931 protest song, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, an industrial folk song that reflects the unjust factory working conditions - the album centres on Julia Wolfe's Compassion, written in the wake of 9/11, and Aaron Copland's elegiac Piano Sonata.

This is a united & mighty pair of brand new studio albums from drummer-bandleader Whit Dickey which were created together with two distinct yet interrelated Quartets. The two works represent the Yin and the Yang respectively, the inseparable and complementary opposites, following an ancient and enduring understanding of the world. Dickey chose Tao Quartets as the name for these groups / this specific work as the Tao wholly incorporates an understanding of this eternal dynamic, and it is here to be heard.