EFW Presents: Duology ( Ted Daniel / Michael Marcus) + Warren Smith at VBI Theatre @ Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center – Poughkeepsie, NY

“My father was an amateur musician, a saxophonist. He actually was friends with Tab Smith, a saxophonist who was in Count Basie’s band, and they grew up together in North Carolina. He always loved music, and he passed that on to his children. He bought me a trumpet when I was about eight or nine years old, and I was playing in (Ossining) public schools, so that’s how I got started playing. My older brother played piano; his name was Richard. Actually he and (guitarist) Sonny Sharrock used to have a singing group, doo-wop stuff, and that was the first music that we all were involved in through the 50’s. The kids listen to rap now — well, that was our version of it.

I heard jazz in the house, older music like Count Basie or Louis Jordan, that type of stuff my father was into. I actually heard a Clifford Brown record, ‘Study In Brown’, by accident, when I was baby-sitting for my sister. She had a big record collection, and I saw the album and put it on because the guy had a trumpet on the cover. I was about thirteen at the time and I said ‘Yeah! This is what I want to do, this is it!’ I had never heard bop before. That’s how I got started getting into jazz.”

— Ted Daniel, to Clifford Allen

Elysium Furnace Works continues its epic 2025 season with a veteran Hudson Valley musician, trumpeter Ted Daniel, joined by clarinetist Michael Marcus in their long-running project, Duology. For this concert, Duology is expands to a trio when they are joined by the illustrious, nonagenarian percussionist Warren Smith, performing on drums and vibraphone.