MY TRIO
Tim Watson – Guitar/Sound Design
Yvonne Rogers – Synthesizers
Jon Starks – Drums/Electronics

The live album ‘my live record’ by My trio recorded at Close Up – Out September 10th, 2026

This performance will be live broadcast on WKCR 89.9FM as a part of the stations 85th anniversary celebration

Close Up presents the ‘Orchard Street Jazz Festival’ from Sep 30th – October 5th bringing together a collection of some of the brightest musical innovators of our time. The festival also celebrates the release and launch of the club’s label with 7 bands performing who’s live records were released in September 2026. This festival is made in part by our partners at D’Addario.

Tim Watson 26, is a guitarist, producer, and composer based in Brooklyn. He is known for his work in the jazz world as a sideman with some of the leading voices of his generation, including Flanafi, Nazir Ebo, Lex Korten, Dion Kerr, Emmanuel Michael, Luke Titus, Brian Richburg, and Cisco Swank. He has also performed or recorded with artists like Marcus Gilmore, Joel Ross, Harish Raghavan, Immanuel Wilkins, David Virelles, Brandon Seabrook, and Noah Preminger, among others. He also regularly collaborates with artists including Sarah Kinsley, Laura Elliott, WHATMORE, and YVES. He has performed​ at many of NYC’s premiere venues, including the Village Vanguard, David Geffen Hall, Apollo Theatre, The Stone, Blue Note, and Rose Hall. He is a member of My trio. His recent large scale theatrical work BLACKPILL 2023 (~25′) was inspired by fringe internet communities. It uses texts pulled from online forums to loosely illustrate how sites that were originally designed to be anime discussion forums ended up (in large part) creating both the blueprint for modern internet humor and the political movements that resulted in the modern alt right. An avid student of Carnatic rhythm, in 2022 Watson performed with leading South Indian classical artists Anantha R. Krishnan, Shree Sundarkumar, and Charumathi Raghuraman in Chennai, India on New Years Eve to close out the Madras music season. He is fluent in Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere. He also works in graphic design and is the graphic designer of Closeup. ​

Yvonne Rogers is a pianist, composer, and multimedia artist from Maine, now based in Brooklyn, New York. Described as a “Fresh, new voice on piano,” (Paul Acquaro, The Free Jazz Collective), she is in demand as both a side-person and bandleader in New York and beyond. She has performed at venues and festivals including the Jazz Gallery, Roulette Intermedium, the Blue Note, Mezzrow, Smalls, Bar Bayeux, the Kennedy Center, NYC Winter Jazz Fest, Jamboree (ES), Porgy and Bess (AT), Birdseye (CH), the DC Jazz Festival, the Deer Isle Jazz Festival, and the Rochester International Jazz Festival. She has performed with artists including Ralph Alessi, Linda May Han Oh, Ingrid Laubrock, Harish Raghavan, Sara Serpa, and more. Yvonne is a 2024 Next Jazz Legacy Awardee, a grant recognizing outstanding women in jazz founded by Terri Lyne Carrington and facilitated by New Music USA. She is a commissioned artist for the 2025 Duck Creek Arts Music Series, where she will premier new music for her quartet. Yvonne was a member of the 2021/2022 Focusyear Band in Basel, Switzerland, where she performed with jazz masters including Kris Davis, Sullivan Fortner, Tineke Postma, Jorge Rossy, Larry Grenadier, Lionel Loueke, Chris Cheek, Elena Pinderhughes, Miguel Zenón, and more. Yvonne has been awarded a variety of other opportunities and accolades including the 2025 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency, the 2024 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award from ASCAP, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Woodshed Network Residency, Ralph Alessi’s School of Improvised Music, and the Sisters in Jazz Combo in which she worked with Ingrid Jensen. In October 2022 she was commissioned by the Big Basel Festival and Fondation Beyeler to compose and conduct a piece for large ensemble inspired by a Louise Bourgeois sculpture. A 2021 graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester, Yvonne holds two degrees: a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano Performance from the studio of Gary Versace and a Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies.

Currently Yvonne performs with Ingrid Laubrock’s “Lilith,” Adam O’Farrill’s “Elephant,” and Alden Hellmuth’s “Good Intentions,” as well as leading her quartet. Her debut album “Seeds” was released in 2023 on Relative Pitch Records and is available on Bandcamp and all other streaming platforms. Yvonne’s work is rooted in improvisation and play. Growing up on the rural Maine coast, Yvonne began writing music that followed the meditative patterns and systems of nature before having any conventional understanding of theory or harmony. She carries this sense of creative abandon with her wherever she is in the world.

Jonathan Starks is a drummer, producer, and pianist originally from Phoenix, AZ. He received his Master’s degree from New England Conservatory in 2020, and now lives in New York City. He stays busy playing drums in several bands and producing records.