Dan Visconti

Beg, Borrow, Steal

ensemble string quartet and saxophone

duration  15 minutes

written 2018

commissioned by Art of Elan for Kontras Quartet and Bradford Marsalis

premiered April 8, 2018, San Diego, CA

For inquiries about this piece, please email music@danvisconti.com.

Program Notes:

In my new work for jazz legend Branford Marsalis and the accomplished contemporary group Kontras Quartet, I’m inspired to connect two musical forces who already reach beyond the traditionally perceived limits of their musical genres. I first came to know the Kontras Quartet as an accomplished classical ensemble that also performed with bluegrass greats like the Kruger Brothers and banjo virtuoso/celebrated actor Steve Martin; I grew up watching Branford on the tonight show but became fascinated with his classical performances as I bean to study music. As a composer, I’ve long been fascinated by bringing the special timbres, energy, and improvisatory spirit of jazz to my compositions for classical groups, and my pieces often take the form of telling stories of “outsiders”—those of us who stand outside the mainstream of American culture, yet are very much a part of the total picture of America by their very existence. My new work, “Be, Borrow, Steal” pays homage to hitchhikers , migrants, and vagabonds as the true mystics, martyrs, and inspiration of our soul. Sometimes it is the populations that mainstream society rejects which end up coming to define society all the more, and in their ingenuity, vision, lack of dogma, and practicality, it struck me that our contemporary wanderers exhibit many of the same traits also held dear by this country’s founders. Wondering where these paths might lead, I’ve planned the piece as a kind of “musical road atlas”, a cross-country journey where the quartet responds to Brandford’s phrases in a series of choices, leading to a work that ends up being as different as each potentials performance.

A great collaboration needs great ideas and great artists, but it also needs a presents who is able to connect this new creation to the curiosity being cultivated for a local community. So to me it’s such a great fit to be creating a new work for one of music’s lends as well as one of music’s most compelling and daring young ensembles, and finding a naturals fit in Art of Elan’s history of successfully introducing groundbreaking new collaborations to a dedicated audience for over a decade.

Kontras Quartet and Branford Marsalis perform Beg, Borrow, Steal at The Music Box on April 8, 2018.