TARPON SPRINGS – The Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center presents 2008 Grammy Award winning Turtle Island String Quartet on June 26.
The group celebrates the music of jazz legend John Coltrane at 8 p.m. and will conduct a music workshop on the Performing Arts Center stage at 2 p.m. for all interested musicians and music lovers.
Since its inception in 1985, the Turtle Island String Quartet has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles.
Cellist nonpareil Yo-Yo Ma has proclaimed TIQ to be “a unified voice that truly breaks new ground – authentic and passionate – a reflection of some of the most creative music-making today.”
A Love Supreme concert program presents an in-depth look at John Coltrane’s 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.
A Love Supreme: Turtle Island Plays The Music Of John Coltrane 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, 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.
In exploring John Coltrane’s musical legacy, the Turtle Island Quartet continues its tradition of employing the string quartet to shed new light on the timeless joy and beauty contained in the greatest music of the American jazz masters. The concert program presents 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.
Turtle Island Quartet is David Balakrishnan, violin; Mark Summer, cello; Mads Tolling, violin; and Jeremy Kittel, viola.
Tickets are $20 and $18, plus $1 tax and handling fee.
Workshop
Workshop participants will join the group on stage at the Performing Arts Center at 2 p.m. for The Art of the Groove. An exploration of rhythm in classical and popular forms through lecture and demonstration. The focus in this program is on the fundamental rhythmic differences between European classical and American vernacular forms, using the rich historical connection to the traditional string quartet as the point of departure for a cross-cultural musical journey that begins with Beethoven and ends with Turtle Island.
Turtle Island identifies the “back-beat” as the key, unveiling it in its various stylistic guises with the help of the audience, and then the quartet embarks on a simple and methodical layering of the basic building blocks employed in creating a jazz string combo, one instrument at a time.
Turtle Island discusses the various techniques that allow it all to happen, including innovative percussive techniques, emulation of other instruments (saxophone, guitar, trumpet, bass, etc.), neo-classical phrasing, composition and arranging, and basics of improvisation. One of the highlights is an exploration of the American fiddle tradition, utilizing the second theme of Dvorak’s American Quartet.
Also touched upon are odd meters in jazz ala Dave Brubeck, Hip-Hop/60s rock ala Jimi Hendrix, R&B ala Tower Of Power and clave rhythms of Latin American music. There is even a little fun with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Throughout all, the back-beat rules.
Cost of the workshop is $10.
For tickets to the 8 p.m. performance or the workshop, call 727-942-5605 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 727-942-5605 end_of_the_skype_highlighting tarponarts.org.