History

Tone Road Ramblers gave its first concert in April 1981 in New York City on the Roulette series. Since then the group has concertized over a large part of the USA including New York, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Tampa, Miami, San Francisco, Fresno, San Diego, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Urbana, and Austin. In addition, TRR was invited to present concerts at the International Festivals of New Music in Bucharest, Romania and Latvia during the 1990's. In 1997, the group performed at Merkin Hall, NYC, and for the International Trombone Festival at Urbana, Illinois. TRR has been recorded on two LP's and seven CD's and continues to rehearse at Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, Illinois, each year for the purpose of exploring new ideas for improvisations and compositions. TRR is a member of Illinois Arts Council's Artstour Artist Roster.

Statement

Tone Road Ramblers sextet creates music which falls somewhere between that of the Kronos Quartet and Sun Ra. TRR formed in 1981 out of respect and trust for one another. They build music from inside their collective and from composers who believe in their vision of music-making. TRR is dedicated to energetic performances of various forms: improvisation, complex scores, and jazz. Because they want listeners to understand their music, they encourage questions and converse openly with their audiences. In every performance they try to discover why music is essential to us all.