Hey Savannah, GA – MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Aug 31, 2010 Uncategorized
August 31, 2010
Mark your calendar
By Bill DeYoung
Heeere’s Mike!
Mike Marshall ought to just buy a house in Savannah, he comes here so often. The California–based master mandolin innovator, a guest at nearly every Savannah Music Festival, returns Oct. 22 for a concert at the Lucas Theatre.
He’s guest–performing with San Francisco’s Turtle Island Quartet, a group he’s been collaborating with for years and years. Turtle Island is famous for stretching the boundaries of both chamber music and straight–ahead acoustic music, ignoring such things as style and label limits to create a vibrant new sound.
That’s what Marshall’s always been about, too.
Not long ago, he was in the studio with Turtle Island recording an entire album of Jimi Hendrix songs for mandolin and strings (Have You Ever Been …?).
On this, Turtle Island’s 25th anniversary tour, they’ll also be joined by jazz piano great Cyrus Chestnut for a program of “classic jazz, Americana and original works.” With Chestnut, the group has recorded everything from John Coltrane to Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys.
This is looking like one electric, eclectic concert. And it’s only autumn!
Tickets, $20–$55, are on sale now.
WXPN asks “Have you experienced Turtle Island Quartet?”
Aug 31, 2010 Uncategorized
Classical musicians meet classic rock as chamber music group Turtle Island Quartet releases “Have You Ever been…?” – A multiple-string approach to some Jimi Hendrix classics. NPR Music’s All Things Considered did an interview with the group which includes performances of “Hey Joe” & “All Along The Watchtower”. Click here to get experienced!
Turtle Island’s feature on NPR’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
Aug 29, 2010 Uncategorized
Listen to Turtle Island on All Things Considered
August 28, 2010
NPR’s All Things Considered (Weekend)
The Turtle Island Quartet has earned rave reviews for their jazzy take on traditional chamber music and their classical take on traditional jazz. Now, they’re taking on another style altogether: the music of Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix changed the way the guitar was played and inspired legions of aspiring rock stars to crank up their amps and make that feedback sing. David Balakrishnan, then a young violinist, was among those inspired. As a young violinist growing up in Los Angeles, Balakrishnan says Hendrix changed his sense of music.
“I started playing guitar actually first and quickly realized there were lots of guitar players but hey, no one was doing that on a violin,” he tells Audie Cornish, guest host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.
Balakrishnan would grow up to form a jazz-classical fusion outfit called the Turtle Island Quartet. Tackling the music of Jimi Hendrix is not the first time the group has challenged the sound of traditional chamber music. On previous albums, they’ve tackled John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.
While listening to Electric Ladyland a few years ago, Balakrishnan says he was struck by how Hendrix’s writing for guitar suited the style of string quartets.
“[H]e wasn’t playing a bunch of chords the way a guitar player would normally play,” he says. “But with Electric Ladyland, he was really layering melodies… and the way he played the guitar, he could really get that sinuous vibrato that creates this texture and bed of melodic fragments laid on top of each other — perfect for a string quartet like Turtle Island.”
The majority of Turtle Islands’s Hendrix interpretations come from Electric Ladyland. Balakrishnan calls that album Hendrix’s magnum opus, and says it was the ultimate expression of his creativity as a guitarist, singer and songwriter — but most of all, as a composer.
“Folks don’t necessarily think of him that way,” Balakrishnan says. “I feel him using his ear and his mind the way I associate with composers of the classical tradition using theirs.”
Have You Ever Been…? also includes “Tree of Life,” a four-part original composition by Balakrishnan that he says was inspired by Hendrix.
“I totally fell in love with something called the Hendrix chord. … It’s what you hear in ‘Purple Haze,’ ” he says. “It just so appealed to me. … I’m still 14, somewhere inside me, in love with Jimi Hendrix, and I hope people hear that connection.”
East Bay Express says TIQ “…bristles with detail.”
Aug 26, 2010 Uncategorized
This week we review Grex, Turtle Island Quartet, Joel Streeter, and Aima the Dreamer.
August 26, 2010
By Rachel Swan
Turtle Island Quartet, Have You Ever Been…? Fifteen-year-old, Peninsula-based jazz string quartet Turtle Island often scavenges old material — from sources as varied as John Coltrane, Eric Clapton, and Robert Johnson. Now it adds Jimi Hendrix to the catalog with rich interpretations of “Voodoo Child,” “Hey Joe,” and “All Along the Watchtower.” Also packed with originals from bandleader David Balakrishnan, Have You Ever Been …? bristles with detail. (Telarc)
At Freight & Salvage (2020 Addison St., Berkeley) on August 29. 8 p.m., $24.50
LA Weekly is ready for anything
Aug 26, 2010 Uncategorized
Brick’s Picks: Jazzapino Sounds
By Brick Wahl Thursday, Aug 26 2010
Alas, this year’s Hollywood & Highland series comes to an abrupt end Tuesday, with Oscar Hernández & the L.A.-N.Y. Connection. This venue’s a blast, there are tourists everywhere, the men in Bermuda shorts, the women in whatever it is the world thinks women are wearing out here but never are, and we dig those crazy concrete elephants. There can’t be another venue in the world like it. Nor like California Plaza, where Grand Performances comes to an end early this season. You can catch the Turtle Island Quartet there Saturday night — apparently they’ll do a night of Jimi Hendrix. It’s doubtful any cellos will be set ablaze or violins smashed, but then you never know with this bunch. And that crazy fountain-and-waterfall backdrop is plenty psychedelic.
Guitar Omnivore gives TIQ props for new CD!
Aug 25, 2010 Uncategorized
Guitar Omnivore
Guitar tech how-to hints,repair stories,Cd reviews and more,from the bench of Arizona guitar repair guru Phil Clark.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
This weeks best guitar Cds-week of 08/24/2010
6) Turtle Island Quartet-Have you ever been…?
A string quartet taking on Jimi Hendrix is no new idea (see Kronos Quartet or Turtle Island’s “Gypsy Eyes” on their 1994 “Who Do We Think We Are? album) but don’t be fooled. This is far more than a jaw dropper of a background Cd to play at your next wine and cheese tasting for your NPR buddies. Turtle Island has built their career on the deconstruction and reinterpretation of unexpected musical styles. Song selection leans heavily on the Electric Ladyland album and following the format set by 2007′s “A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane” they include several of their own compositions.
Another Pick of the Week in LA!
Aug 25, 2010 Uncategorized
The International Review of Music
Picks of the Week: Aug. 24 – 29
By Don Heckman
- Aug. 28. (Sat.) The Turtle Island Quartet. The ever-adventurous Turtle Islanders perform music from their new CD, Have You Ever Been… — featuring the music of Jimi Hendrix and founder/composer in residence David Balakrishnan. Grand Performances. (213) 687-2190.
Top Pick in LA Times! – Don’t miss FREE Aug 28th concert
Aug 24, 2010 Uncategorized
More Events at Grand Performances at California Plaza
Aug 28 Turtle Island Quartet
Top Pick
Price: Free
Where: Grand Performances at California Plaza 90071
Neighborhood: Downtown
213-687-2159 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 213-687-2159 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Description:
The long-running string quartet led by original member David Balakrishnan on violin performs from its latest album, “Have You Ever Been?” which gives the songs Jimi Hendrix a jazz and classical-informed reworking.
The ‘Don’t Miss’ List in Los Angeles – Saturday, August 28th
Aug 24, 2010 Uncategorized
The ‘Don’t Miss’ List
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Cal Plaza Says Goodbye, Asia Says Hello
by Lauren Campedelli
Published: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 11:15 AM PDT
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Is it the end of summer already? Grand Performances has given Downtown three months of diverse cultural experiences, and the series’ final weekend is no exception. Über-tenor Matthew Stoneman (shown here) sweetly sings classic Spanish-language boleros on Friday, Aug. 27, at noon. At 8 p.m. that night, actor and puppeteer Paul Zaloom brings his Toy Theater Puppet Show to the California Plaza Watercourt. But leave the kiddies at home; this found-object-animation satire is for adults only. Come on back Saturday night at 8 p.m., when Turtle Island Quartet fuses its classical aesthetic with contemporary style in an homage to Jimi Hendrix. At 350 S. Grand Ave., grandperformances.org.
