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
"This highly recommended addition to the [Turtle] discography proves that, after 25 years, this group still has the ability to dazzle the listener."
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
"The ensemble's latest release, Have You Ever Been…?, opens an alternate universe for music lovers!"
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
"…an improvising group, which allows them to play things the Guarneri and Juilliard quartets can’t"
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
The "dazzlingly eclectic" Turtles hit Minneapolis
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
Our feature in Wall St. Journal!!!!
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
Balakrishnan's "Tree of Life"…a beautiful mash-up.
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
the JAZZ POLICE rave about Turtle Island's new CD!
Friday, 03 September 2010 Hendrix, Dylan, and Darwin: The Turtle Island Quartet Releases “Have You Ever Been…?” Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor Friday, 03 September 2010 Have You Ever Been...? My father would like the latest Turtle Island Quartet release, Have You Ever Been…? The Music of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan (Telarc). A longtime classical and opera buff, I am sure he never has listened to Jimi Hendrix or related music. But on hearing this recording, I believe he ... Read More
Simply put folks, Turtle Island Quartet is not only making chamber music for the future but they are making it cool too.
Turtle Island Quartet @ The Triple Door | 9/1 | Doors at 5:30PM, show starts at 7:30PM | $18 In Advance Turtle Island Quartet is not Mozart or Beethoven’s chamber music but it’s likely both would be impressed by the group’s innovative approach to the centuries old genre. Since 1985, TIQ has been redefining chamber music one chamber hall at a time. Renowned for their clever arrangements of well-known modern pieces as well as original compositions and their venerable improvisations, Turtle Island ... Read More
All Things Strings: The American Evolution
Turtle Island Quartet marks 25 years on the cutting edge of chamber jazz By David Templeton, Strings Magazine, November 2010. http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=26357 Wrapped in a jaggedly corrugated cocoon of wooden sound baffles, and surrounded by a forest of microphones and mountains of high-tech recording gear, members of the Turtle Island Quartet, bows in hand, are sitting in silent concentration, waiting for their signal to continue. From inside the sound ... Read More