Warp Trio, the internationally touring, cross-genre chamber music experience, presented “Black Voices” at the Music Hall last Tuesday evening. The band also included original spoken word by emcee LiKWUiD, pairing it with music composed by Duke Ellington, William Grant Still, Harry Burleigh and even original compositions by Warp Trio members themselves. 

Warp Trio electrified a one-hour performance with poetry from various well-known Black poets such as Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Ntozake Shange.

“I think Josh [Henderson] did a wonderful job compiling the amount of pieces from different time periods that you can research and relate to,” said LiKWUiD. “There are so many different time periods and poets that you can pull from and being able to flip it over to them [the audience] in this hour-length of time is just like making them want to go out and research even more.”

LiKWUiD is a hip-hop fusion artist, emcee, rapper, DJ, songwriter, and educator who has performed nationwide with many artists such as Jazmine Sullivan, Slick Rick, Bow Wow, and various others. 

“I hope people are inspired to check out the poetry and the music because it’s a very rich part of history that is sometimes forgotten and overlooked so we hope that people are inspired to go dig on that,” said Warp Trio’s pianist Mikael Darmanie.

Warp Trio’s cross-genre violinist, violist, electric bassist, and composer Josh Henderson told the UT they were on tour around the West Coast when they agreed to perform at a Cal State LA Art and Letters event for the campus.

The unique and electrifying combination of genres – contemporary, classical works, rock, and jazz styles – indeed amazed the students that attended. 

Second-year music major Alisten Mendez explained how he was in awe over how many classical pieces he could recognize within the music Warp Trio performed. “Actually, I really liked a lot of it, and I knew that there were some of the composers… [The performance] reminded [me] of like Gershwin and Verdi Boskovich especially.”

Amazed by the details within the pieces Wrap Trio performed, Mendez said, “It was so good; there are so many little details that I can describe, just like the cadenzas that they had were so good.”

Marilyn Devalle came with her friends from Cal State LA to see Warp Trio. “I think they’re all very talented individuals. I didn’t know what to expect so coming here and hearing what I heard, it was amazing because I had no expectations and they did a great job.”

Warp Trio’s next performance is on Feb. 28 at the Current Gallery and Art Center in Nassau, Bahamas.