Turtle Island Quartet to salute Jimi Hendrix and Charles Darwin on the same album. (Copyright Jay Blakesberg) By Mike Joyce Friday, December 3, 2010 TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET Here's something few groups could pull off: coupling an ingeniously arranged tribute to Jimi Hendrix with an original string ensemble suite honoring the life and work of Charles Darwin. Yes, musically speaking, it helps to be a little bipolar, says Turtle Island Quartet co-founder David Balakrishnan. Of course, being in a ... Read More
The Turtles take on the Nation's Capitol!
by Emily Cary When the Turtle Island Quartet plays, all the preconceived notions about string instruments are abolished and listeners are transported to an uncharted dimension. Two years after a jaw-dropping concert illustrating their "string theory," the virtuoso musicians return to George Mason University Center for the Arts with original pieces inspired by jazz musicians and even a scientist. Their guests, the outstanding jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut and Mike Marshall, the world-renowned ... Read More
Harrisburg gears up for Turtle Island – Dec 3rd
11/26/2010 EXCERPT Turtle Island Quartet: Turtle Island Quartet will make a stop on its 25th anniversary tour for a Live at Rose Lehrman performance at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, in the Rose Lehrman Arts Center on the Harrisburg Campus of HACC. Guest musicians Mike Marshall (mandolin) and Cyrus Chestnut (piano) will accompany the group in a concert featuring a mix of jazz, folk and R&B styles with a flavoring of holiday tunes. David Balakrishnanin started the quartet in 1985 and it has been a ... Read More
David talks to the San Francisco Classical Voice
Musicians, like other species, mutate and adapt to survive — or, in the case of groups like the pioneering Bay Area–based Turtle Island String Quartet, simply because doing so captivates them and stirs the juices that got them going in the first place. Oh, yeah: Adding some screaming licks based on the most celebrated psychedelic-era musician of all time never hurts, either. This double-Grammy-Award-winning group is now celebrating its 25th anniversary with two San Francisco ... Read More
Grammy-Winning Quartet Relies on Bartlett Microphones
Grammy-Winning Quartet Relies on Bartlett Microphones A two-time Grammy winner, the Turtle Island Quartet is known for its lush string sound and genre-bending musical innovation. Now celebrating its 25th year as a quartet, this Fall the group has chosen Bartlett miniature instrument microphones for their live-sound reinforcement. Violist Jeremy Kittel says, “The mics are sounding great -- no EQ at all necessary most of the time.” The quartet had previously used microphones that needed a fair ... Read More
Turtles bring Danzon to South Bend
Nov 6, 2010 Dancers challenge quartet with ‘Danzón’ DANCE By HOWARD DUKES Tribune Staff Writer The Luna Negra Dance Theater tries to bring an avant-garde feel to art forms that have been viewed as being somewhat old school. Photo provided The Luna Negra Dance Theater performs Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts. ________________________________________ Onstage Luna Negra Dance Theater, Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera ... Read More
Have You Ever Been…? wouldn't seem to work in concept, but in execution it is a sublime pleasure.
State of Mind Albums Turtle Island Quartet - Have You Ever Been...? [Telarc] by Doug Collette October 22, 2010 Turtle Island Quartet - Have You Ever Been...? It's rare for any music lover to discover something like Turtle Island String Quartet's tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Have You Ever Been...? wouldn't seem to work in concept, but in execution it is a sublime pleasure. Epiphanies come early and often on this disc. On the title song, Turtle Island reveals ever so clearly how the inner ... Read More
More love southern style – Turtles bring Silver Anniversary program to Savannah Y'all
Turtle Island Quartet to perform works of Jimi Hendrix at Lucas Theatre on Friday October 21, 2010 By Kenda Williams It's not often that an audience can hear a classical string quartet play the works of rock legend Jimi Hendrix with creativity, precision and respect. In its latest album, "Have you ever been...?," classical and jazz innovators Turtle Island Quartet surprise fans with their take on several Hendrix songs, as well as Hendrix-inspired compositions they wrote and recorded. The ... Read More
"…every note played by these four musicians, Hendrix or otherwise, deserves your ear."
Turtle Island Quartet: Have You Ever Been...? By Jonathan Kosakow 18 October 2010 Over the years, recreating any single part of Jimi Hendrix’s music has proven nearly, if not completely, impossible. Well, now it’s time to make way for Turtle Island Quartet. Granted, the classical string quartet inherently lacks the boisterousness of Hendrix’s electric blues, and the deafening, somehow melodic feedback isn’t there either, but the eight tracks TIQ have chosen for this reinterpretation ... Read More
Indianapolis Star reviews "Have You Ever Been…?"
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 If you like Time for Three… …you might also like the Turtle Island Quartet, whose new disc, “Have You Ever Been…?” (Telarc), presents the long-running string quartet in a program of music from the Jimi Hendrix book, plus leader David Balakrishnan’s suite called “Tree of Life.” The two groups do not plow the same fields, but they farm in the same climate, as it were. And the (for now) Indianapolis-based Time for Three is all over the place next week, with a shared gig ... Read More