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

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

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

October 07. 2010 Turtle Island Quartet to play music of Hendrix, Coltrane Turtle Island String Quartet photographed at the Marin Headlands in Marin County, CA April 22, 2010(C)Jay Blakesberg The skinny Turtle Island Quartet will perform today at noon at Penn State Behrend's McGarvey Commons in the Reed Union Building as part of the Logan Series. It's free, open to the public, with parking available in Reed Union Building lot. For more about the quartet, visit the website ... Read More

September 2010 • Issue 329 Page Thirteen Turtle Island Quartet Have You Ever Been...? Telarc TISQ takes on a big challenge in transforming the music of rock guitar legend Jimi Hendrix to the language of a classical string quartet, yet succeeds with exhilarating flair on the six Hendrix tunes (as well as seven more tunes by TISQ founding violinist David Balakrishnan and others). This disc follows their Grammy winning 2007 recording, A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane. TISQ is ... Read More

Lamorinda Weekly Published September 15th, 2010 Turtle Island - Not Your Usual String Quartet By Lou Fancher When David Balakrishnan brings his violin and the Turtle Island Quartet to Saint Mary's College on September 29, Jimi Hendrix will tag along. The Grammy-winning string quartet, known for its genre-defying mastery of everything from classical to bluegrass, swing to hip-hop, latin american music to jazz, and now, rock, easily defies description. Sometimes referred to as an "American ... Read More

Jazz picks for the weekend: Sunday: Turtle Island Quartet: Have You Ever Been...? The Grammy-winning classical crossover group — violinists David Balakrishnan and Mads Tolling, violist Jeremy Kittel, cellist Mark Summer — is also an improvising group, which allows them to play things the Guarneri and Juilliard quartets can’t: Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” for example, and Monk’s “Who Do You Think We Are?” Founding member Balakrishnan has been a Jimi Hendrix fan since his teens; the quartet’s ... Read More

Turtle Island Quartet By Rick Mason Wednesday, September 8, 2010 Around the time they were tackling the monumental legacy of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme in 2007, the Turtle Islanders dropped the String from its name. Although certainly not indicative of any change in the group's classic acoustic chamber instrumentation, maybe it was meant to eliminate any suggestion that TIQ is in any way a standard string quartet. In fact, Turtle Island has been dazzlingly eclectic since its origins in the ... Read More

String Quartet Does Hendrix Turtle Island 's new album is a tribute to his genius By JIM FUSILLI Nicasio, Calif. As a teenager, David Balakrishnan saw Jimi Hendrix perform live. "I could feel the momentum of his genius shining through," the violinist, composer and founder of Turtle Island Quartet said earlier this year at Skywalker Ranch here. "I went home and listened to 'Electric Ladyland' for three days straight." Since then, Mr. Balakrishnan has sought to incorporate Hendrix's works into ... Read More

September 3, 2010 Turtle Island Quartet (Telarc) The Turtle Island Quartet — established 25 years ago in San Francisco by violinist-composer David Balakrishnan as a jazz string group with folk, rock and world influences — has retained its boundary-blurring energy despite an evolving membership. Following a 2007 set devoted to John Coltrane, the foursome showcases its takes on the visionary Jimi Hendrix. Some of these arrangements are strikingly soulful. “Hey Joe” has a mournful, deep-blues ... Read More