Winter’s Eve
visions of a frosty winter’s eve and year-end celebrations from around the globe
The two-time GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet parlays its own unique brand of jazz chamber brilliance to present a joyous concert of effervescent music making. The repertoire evokes visions of a frosty winter’s eve and year-end celebrations from around the globe. From ancient King Wren songs of the Celtic winter solstice and yuletide reels from Ireland, to Brazilian festive chorinho music, African Kora, tunes of Hannukah, slavic folk carols, a Hindu spiritual, and a Miles Davis holiday classic, Turtle Island delves into the timeless music that has been an integral part of wintertime festivities for centuries.
Carry Me Home
With special guest pianist Cyrus Chestnut
The instrumentation is recognizable to any aficionado of chamber music, that of the classic piano quintet. Renowned jazz master Cyrus Chestnut and the GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet continue their remarkable journey together as they traverse the myriad colors of jazz and beyond. The collaboration is infused with the global reach of gospel and sacred music- ranging from the Appalachian Mountains to the spiritually defined musical landscape of J.S. Bach. Dipping into the rhythms of world cultures, these five multi-stylistic singularly, gifted musicians come together to embrace the transcendental power of great music. A moving night of Ellington, Wayne Shorter, Bill Withers, Coltrane, and more.
Bird’s Eye View
homage to Charlie Parker
In this high flying program, the two-time GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet, pays homage to the incandescent visionary brilliance of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. The genius of his improvisations almost single handedly catapulted jazz from pop style into art music, indelibly altering the musical landscape of America.
Iconic Charlie Parker classics such as KoKo, A Night In Tunisia, and Dewey Square are juxtaposed with original responses by quartet members, and intertwined with other thematic pieces from the bebop era and beyond such as Sonny Rollins’ Airegin, Miles Ahead by Gil Evans/Miles Davis, and Subconscious-Lee by Lee Konitz. Grammy-nominated composer David Balakrishnan contributes his newly commissioned work, Aeroelasticity: Harmonies Of Impermanence.*
Turtle Island draws its primary focus and musical identity from the individual creative voices of the ensemble who are at home in folk, pop and jazz. It continues to recalibrate the foundational parameters of the traditional string quartet form, in a sense coming from the other direction.
*Aeroelasticity: Harmonies Of Impermanence is made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.
Birth of the Cool
Brand-new arrangements of cool jazz standards that blur the line between classical and jazz
The Turtle Island Quartet employs their signature groove-based rhythmic techniques to create brand-new arrangements of cool jazz standards that prove that the line between classical music and jazz is much thinner than one might think. In addition to classics by Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Lenny Tristano and others, the quartet will premiere a brand-new work by founder and violinist David Balakrishnan. Called “Rebirth of the Holy Fool,” this work takes cool jazz as a starting point but borrows extensively from bluegrass, classical, jazz and Indian music – a work typical of the Turtle Island Quartet’s style, yet still utterly surprising and unexpected.
Rounding out the program are selections from the Turtle Island Quartet’s latest album, Confetti Man. Confetti Man is an affirmation of the Turtle Island Quartet’s uniquely important role in contemporary music as they continue into their 30th season. On every track, the quartet delights in exploring the ambiguous worlds between different genres, and proves definitively that combining seemingly incompatible styles of music results in something that is much more than the sum of its parts.
Crossroads
A musical journey through the American landscape with Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall is one of the most accomplished and versatile acoustic musicians performing today—well known for his collaborations with the leading artists of our day such as Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, and Chris Thile. Now, this master of the mandolin, guitar and violin, joins forces with the two-time Grammy®-winning Turtle Island Quartet for a series of unforgettable concerts. Together they undertake a musical journey through the American landscape. Various stops along the way include American fiddle and folk music, modern and vintage jazz, Latin American and South Indian music, the myriad folk and classical traditions of Europe, and beyond. Whether exploring the music of the many immigrant cultures of the 19th century or creating original work that melds these influences into new sounds, this great combination is not to be missed.
A Flower is a Lovesome Thing
A night of intoxicating revelry with special guest Nellie McKay
Singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist, and actor Nellie McKay joins forces with the two time GRAMMY® award winning Turtle Island Quartet to present a delightfully kaleidoscopic view of the music of Billie Holiday, Billy Strayhorn, and the Weimar cabaret of the 1920’s. While the combination of voice and strings has long been a staple of the classical genre as well as of contemporary music, Nellie McKay’s talents on piano, mallets, and ukulele and Turtle Island’s famed innovative rhythmic techniques unleash an unprecedented range of possibilities. A healthy dose of original music, for which both Ms. McKay and the Turtle Island Quartet are renowned, rounds out this sweeping concert.
The multi-award winning Turtle Island Quartet has released numerous recordings and toured internationally for more than a quarter of a century. Recent projects include programs dedicated to two pioneers of the American musical landscape; John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix. The ensemble has collaborated with some of the most sought-after artists of our day including; Paquito d’Rivera, The Assad Duo, Cyrus Chestnut, and Leo Kottke. Nellie McKay, who performed on Broadway in The Three Penny Opera, here performs music of 1920′s Berlin as well as jazz standards made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of these pieces transcend time and genre, ranging from Marlene Dietrich to Lady Day, with a touch of Doris Day, whose music was so evocatively revisited by Nellie McKay on her recent recording Normal as Blueberry Pie.
Songs by the great Billy Strayhorn complete a night of intoxicating revelry.
An Evening with Turtle Island Quartet
Drawing from thirty-five years of performances and recordings, An Evening with Turtle Island Quartet includes a wide range of original music written and performed by artistic director, resident composer and violinist David Balakrishnan with violinist Gabriel Terracciano, violist Benjamin von Gutzeit and cellist Naseem Alatrash. The program will include Balakrishnan’s GRAMMY®-nominated “Confetti Man” and his recent composition “The Second Wave,” with occasional additions of the latest works by Terence Blanchard, Edgar Meyer, Wayne Shorter and others. This latest program is the first of many that will celebrate this unique quartet and the brain child of Balakrishnan, focusing on both music written for the quartet and music written in the last decade by great pioneers in jazz & American roots music.
Early in his career, Balakrishnan developed his compositional approach based on the principle of multi-stylistic integration applied to bowed string instruments while studying at Antioch University West. This established the signature artistic bedrock for TIQ as it was being formed, and that since has earned Balakrishnan two GRAMMY® nominations in the arranging category, and one in the instrumental composition category.
In addition to these accolades, his original work “Spider Dreams” (1992) has been widely performed and recorded throughout the world, most notably a live recording by Turtle Island with the Detroit Symphony conducted by Neeme Järvi. A 2002 commission awarded by a consortium of presenters headed by the Lied Center of Kansas City resulted in a string octet entitled “Mara’s Garden Of False Delights.” This was a central contribution to 4+Four, the recording that won Turtle Island its first GRAMMY® award. Again commissioned by the Lied Center in 2008, Balakrishnan composed a full-length work involving theatre, dance, poetry, video and TIQ with the KU wind ensemble that is an artistic response to the socio/political issues concerning the various theories of evolution, both scientific and cultural, entitled “The Tree Of Life.”
Many legendary string players are alumni of Turtle Island Quartet, having pushed the limits of the group, including Jeremy Kittel, Mark Summer, Darol Anger, Mads Tolling, Evan Price and Tracy Silverman.
About Founder and Resident Composer David Balakrishnan: Balakrishnan began his career making appearances with the David Grisman Quartet and jazz violin legend Stephane Grappelli. In addition to his GRAMMY®-awards & nominations for the quartet, he is the recipient of numerous grants, from private sources such as conductor Marin Alsop, who commissioned his piece for violin and orchestra, “Little Mouse Jumps,” as well as organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, League of American Orchestras and Meet The Composer. In 2005 he received a MTC/ASOL “Music Alive” residency with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (largest orchestral composing grant of the year) for which he composed six works. The NCO also commissioned Balakrishnan’s composition “Darkness Dreaming,” which premiered in April 2004 with guitarists Sharon Isbin and John Jorgenson. In 2015 he received Chamber Music America’s prestigious Classical Commissioning Program grant, supporting a full-length work commemorating the quartet’s 30th anniversary season. In addition to focusing on writing original music for Turtle Island, Balakrishnan will be helping support the creation of new orchestral programming that will tour through Fox Performances in future seasons.
Jelly, Rags and Monk
With special guest pianist Cyrus Chestnut
The extraordinary jazz pianist, Cyrus Chestnut, and the GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet are back together, displaying their formidable collective virtuosity. Making soulful and sweet connections that delve deeply into the jazz and classical traditions, the quintet embraces a range of composers on this brand new program- from Jelly Roll Morton to Thelonious Monk.
Back when sheet music was the means of musical transmission, in the hands of composers like Debussy and Stravinsky, ragtime found its way into the classical repertoire of Europe. But in the first part of the 20th century in America, the giant of ragtime and jazz was Jelly Roll Morton. An obvious candidate for exploration is Morton’s nod to his New Orleans Creole roots, Turtle Twist, an example of his trademark ’spanish tinge’ style that was to reverberate throughout all the periods of jazz that followed. Monk himself cites Morton as one of his main influences, and his timeless composition Blue Monk, with its ragtime rhythms and bent harmonies, was one of his personal favorites. Given a more modern reading is Joplin’s evocative Pineapple Rag, which provides the quintet an opportunity to show off the swing style intended by the composer.
Turtle Island and Cyrus Chestnut draw a blazing and virtuosic line from the early roots of jazz directly to Monk, one of the geniuses of the modern jazz era.
Silver Anniversary
With Special Guests Cyrus Chestnut and Mike Marshall
One evening in November 1985 four young and adventurous string players sat down together at a friend’s home for a nice meal and some string quartet music. One would normally expect the standard fare of Mozart, Beethoven, and maybe some Mendelssohn, but these early intrepid explorers of the alternative string music world had entirely something else in mind.
Starting off with Oliver Nelson’s classic jazz ballad “Stolen Moments,” proceeding into Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia,” and culminating in violinist/composer David Balakrishnan’s seminal four movement cross-genre opus, “Balapadam,” they began a journey that would shake the very foundation of the two hundred fifty year old string quartet tradition, and play a central role in the redefining of the stylistic boundaries of American classical chamber music.
Twenty five years later, having accumulated a mountain of well deserved accolades including GRAMMY® awards for their last two recordings, the Turtle Island Quartet has chosen, as collaborators, two acclaimed artists for their distinctive roles in American music today; jazz piano master Cyrus Chestnut* and virtuoso mandolinist Mike Marshall** will celebrate the silver anniversary in grand style. Messrs.
Chestnut and Marshall, having both previously collaborated with Turtle Island individually, bring a dazzling array of possibilities to the quartet’s quarter century of repertoire. Classic jazz, Americana, and new works highlight this extraordinary project.
The Divine Duke
With special guest percussionist Stefon Harris
The name Duke Ellington conjures the vision of a musical genius who guided one of the most well-known orchestral units in the history of jazz. As a pianist extraordinaire and worldwide ambassador for American music and jazz, Ellington composed scores of tunes and songs that were the biggest hits of his time and to this day retain a major role in the jazz canon.
The Duke had a serious, spiritual side as well. The series of sacred music concerts that he gave near the end of his life feature some of his deepest and most profound works. This visionary music combined jazz with classical and gospel forms and brilliantly foreshadowed the classical crossover genre of today‘s musical world. This body of work provides a perfect foundation for the bold new collaboration featuring the Grammy®-winning Turtle Island Quartet and renowned percussionist, Stefon Harris.
Louisiana Story
With special guest Michael Doucet, leader of BeauSoleil
The 1949 Pulitzer prize winning film score written by Virgil Thompson provides the inspiration for GRAMMY® award winning artists Michael Doucet and the Turtle Island Quartet to delve deeply into the myriad faces of Cajun music and beyond. Michael Doucet, leader of the famed ensemble BeauSoleil, is one of 12 recipients of the 2005 National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has an encyclopedic mastery of this quintessential American music genre and reveals an astonishing range of stylistic influences from all over the globe.
Michael Doucet is an ideal partner for the Turtle Island Quartet, the world’s preeminent cross-genre string quartet. Afro Cuban rhythm, the modern jazz harmonic language, traditional and classical styles from France, and even South Indian tabla grooves all find their place at the table, a sumptuous meal with spice, sweetness and unbridled joy.
Mr. Doucet’s connection with Turtle Island Quartet dates to 1988, when he invited the newly formed quartet to perform at the “Festival International De Louisiane.” This American Francophone festival is still held annually in Mr. Doucet’s hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana, where recently they were reunited in a post-concert jam, directly leading to the evolution of this program—a petite fête, not to be missed!
Michael Doucet appears courtesy of The Rosebud Agency.
4 + Four
Turtle Island Quartet and Ying Quartet
The Turtle Island Quartet and Ying Quartet collaboration features two dynamic string ensembles from opposite ends of the musical spectrum exploring the inner core and outer edges of their art form. The project was inspired by idle conversation between Phillip Ying and David Balakrishnan while they both were attending a Chamber Music America board meeting.
The two groups had the opportunity to pursue the myriad possibilities in person during a subsequent Turtle Island engagement at Eastman School of Music, where the Yings are in residence. As the musicians threw ideas back and forth, such as what role improvisation and groove play in a classical string quartet and how vibrato is used in creating a sonorous blend when playing jazz, a preliminary concept for a central theme soon emerged: “Tradition versus Innovation.”
During the first half of the program each quartet performs separately, demonstrating their individual styles of presentation and interpretation. The quartets unite in the second half to perform a new transcription of Darius Milhaud’s “La Création Du Monde,” the first significant attempt to use jazz in a concert work (1923). “Julie-O,” a virtuosic tour de force for cello duo by Mark Summer, follows. The centerpiece of the program is David Balakrishnan’s, “Mara’s Garden Of False Delights,”* a three-movement work imbued with the composer’s trademark stylistic integration of jazz, American vernacular, western classical and East Indian musical genres.
The program ends with both groups squaring off in a classic ‘battle of the bands’ configuration to perform Evan Price’s masterful “Variations on an Unoriginal Theme,” which takes the audience on a tour through a brief history of chamber music, beginning with a bit of simulated Haydn and ending with the sounds of James Brown! Telarc released the collaboration nationally in 2005.
Poets & Prayers
Celebrating the muse in all its forms with special guest Tierney Sutton
Turtle Island, the double GRAMMY® winning quartet that has re-defined chamber jazz for over twenty five years, is joined by the great jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton in a series of concerts that answers the simple question: What inspires us?
This historic collaboration overflows with inspiration. From the moving traditional hymn Wade in the Water to Joni Mitchell’s All I Want to settings of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and words of Hafiz and Rumi- Poets & Prayers celebrates the muse, in all its forms.
The Turtle Island Quartet has been hailed by The Washington Post for their “excellent precision and musicality.” With numerous awards, including two GRAMMY®’s, and major appearances in the great concert halls of the world, the Turtle Island Quartet continues their long history of collaborations with outstanding guest artists. Tierney Sutton is now included in the ranks of Turtle Island guest artists – a list that also features the Assad Duo, Paquito d’Rivera, Kenny Barron, Stefon Harris, the Ying Quartet, Michael Doucet, and Cyrus Chestnut, among others.
Vocalist Tierney Sutton’s celebrated career has included multiple GRAMMY® nominations, appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the Hollywood Bowl, and a series of well regarded recordings. JazzTimes says Sutton’s brilliance is her ability to blend seamlessly and The New York Times called her “a pure jazz spirit.”
Tierney Sutton appears courtesy of Unlimited Myles, Inc.
String Theory
With special guests Sergio and Odair Assad
At first glance, the coming together of a string quartet and a guitar duo may seem like nothing more than an entertaining night on the town. But these two super-groups of the string world, both having irrevocably altered the face of their respective traditions, have something altogether different in mind.
Think around the world in one evening of wild celebration, astounding virtuosity and deep beauty, from the lands of Africa and India to the Appalachian Mountains, to the rhythmic poetry of the Balkans, the warmth and passion of Brazil, the hard-swinging elegance of Gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, and everything in between. Join the Assad Brothers and the Turtle Island Quartet as they postulate a new unified string theory of their own design.
Have You Ever Been…?
Celebrating legendary guitarist, songwriter and performer Jimi Hendrix
Through their exploration of jazz, classical, American roots and world music styles, the Turtle Island Quartet has taken its audiences on a journey through many musical genres, eras, and places – the American landscape, Latin America, Europe, and India to name a few. In this program the two time Grammy®-winning quartet ventures to Electric Ladyland, tackling works by legendary guitarist, songwriter and performer Jimi Hendrix, as well as other compositions reflective of and inspired by Hendrix’s music including TIQ founder David Balakrishnan’s 2016 Grammy nominated composition “Confetti Man.”
In addition to a suite of four Hendrix pieces taken from his seminal Electric Ladyland album, other highlights include “La Dans Du Bonheur” by English jazz fusion guitarist/composer John McLaughlin (who famously jammed with Hendrix the year before he died), “All Along The Watchtower,” the Bob Dylan tune that Jimi transformed into a rock anthem, and the Hendrix version of “Hey Joe,” given a slower, more ballad-like treatment but still with a rock beat. The two movement composition Confetti Man, opening the latest TIQ recording of the same name, evinces the signature cross-genre synthesis that has been the career defining imperative for Balakrishnan, who himself considers Jimi Hendrix to be one of his prime musical influences.
A Love Supreme
Turtle Island Plays The Music Of John Coltrane
Given the proper conditions, a work of art can transcend both genre and era, claiming its rightful place in the universality of human expression that justifies the very existence of mankind. Such is the case of John Coltrane’s jazz epiphany, A Love Supreme. Recorded four decades ago at a time when the country was deeply troubled by issues of race and war, Trane’s music was a personal statement of redemption and salvation that struck a chord in the hearts of millions, becoming one of the most enduring jazz recordings of all time.
The string quartet form itself continues to thrive in the 21st century in no small part due to its impressive history of similar achievements in its two hundred year old canon. In exploring John Coltrane’s musical legacy, TI continues its own tradition of employing the string quartet form to shed new light on the timeless joy and beauty contained in the greatest music of the American jazz masters. The concert program will present an in-depth look at this landmark recording in the greater context of the music that preceded and followed, a time many consider to be the last great evolutionary period of jazz.
ICONS
With special guest pianist Cyrus Chestnut
Question: What do a well respected jazz pianist exploring the music of Elvis Presley and a string quartet that dares to attempt to recreate John Coltrane’s immortal A Love Supreme have in common? Answer: A desire to sift out golden nuggets of beauty and purity from the granite stratums of musical convention. Warner Brothers recording artist Cyrus Chestnut and the Grammy®-winning Turtle Island Quartet continue their grail-like quest in a program that matches a reinterpretation of Brahms celebrated piano quintet with a gospel-tinged fantasy of Down by the Riverside.
The giants of jazz such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Louis Armb are given their just due and bluegrass legends like Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs are brought to the table for this musical feast. From the ICONS of music, these virtuoso players pull a program of unmatched brilliance.
Danzón
Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera with Luna Negra Dance Theater
After working with artists from all over the Latino world, and investigating the myriad of cultural influences that make up Latino culture, artistic director Eduardo Vilaro is returning to his own roots for Luna Negra Dance Theater’s 10th Anniversary season with the creation of a new work entitled Danzón.
The Danzón has been called the official dance of Cuba, and it initially evolved from Haitian contradance. Its current form was created by Miguel Faílde Pérez in 1879, and although the Danzón has evolved in many respects, much of the original structure remains. As traditional Cuban dance music, Danzón has never ceased to influence Cuban musicians, and its influences can be heard in virtually all popular Cuban music genres. It is this continuity that defines Danzón as a truly unique, living art form.
For this new work, Luna Negra Dance Theater will collaborate with the bold and ingenious Turtle Island Quartet, and legendary composer and performer Paquito D’Rivera. Turtle Island and Mr. D’Rivera have collectively won eleven Grammy Awards. Following the world premiere in Chicago at the Harris Theater, Luna Negra Dance Theater and the musicians will embark on a national tour- bringing this fabulous new music and dance experience to audiences across the country.
Danzón is a commission of the Harris Theater in Chicago, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame, and the Music Center at Strathmore. In partnering with Turtle Island Quartet and Paquito D’Rivera, Vilaro is taking this traditional and quintessentially Cuban dance form and reinventing and reinvigorating it as a modern work of art. In doing so, he is both introducing mainstream American audiences to a thriving Latino tradition, and creating a milestone moment in the continuity of Latino artistic expression.