In-School Performances

TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET

Visit Website
“A STERLING EXAMPLE OF FIRST-RATE JAZZ MUSIC-MAKING”
Los Angeles Times
“EXCELLENT PRECISION AND MUSICALITY”
Excellent precision and musicality
“THE STRINGS SING, NOT LIKE ANGELS, BUT LIKE THEY'VE BEEN AROUND. THE IMPROVISATIONS HANG TOUGH, SOLIDLY BUILT AND TAKE NO BACK TALK FROM ANYBODY.”
The Seattle Post-Intelligence
News and Events

09.01.10
The American Evolution: Turtle Island Quartet marks 25 years on the cutting edge of chamber jazz

08.02.10
Baylin Artists Selected to Showcase at Fall 2010 Conferences
Turtle Island, Luna Negra and Viver Brasil were selected to showcase at fall conferences

Performance Highlights

09.02.10
The Cashore Marionettes
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar, VA

09.04.10
Hot 8 Brass Band
Arts Festival Oklahoma Arts Stage
Oklahoma City Community College
Oklahoma City, OK

09.05.10
ETHEL
Moab Music Festival
Moab, UT

Listen

from the album- Have You Ever Been...?
Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
1983...(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)
from the album- A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane
La Danse du Bonheur (McLaughlin/Shankar)
Countdown (Coltrane)
So What (Davis)
excerpts from A Solstice Celebration
Jot Se Jot Jagake Chalo (Pyarela)
Winter in Cairo (Vivaldi)
Beautiful Savior (Trad.)
Christmas Day I'Da Mornin'/Apples in Winter (Trad.)

Tours & Projects

Have You Ever Been...?- 10-11-12

the music of JIMI HENDRIX and DAVID BALAKRISHNAN

Through their exploration of jazz, classical, American vernacular 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. Now 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 new composition “Tree of Life.”

In addition to a suite of four Hendrix pieces taken from his seminal Electric Ladyland album, other highlights include a solo cello rendition of Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” by co-founder/cellist Mark Summer, “To Bop Or Not To Be” by English jazz fusion guitarist/composer John McLaughlin (who famously jammed with Hendrix the year before he died), and the Hendrix version of “Hey Joe,” given a slower, more ballad-like treatment but still with a rock beat. The four movement string quartet version of “Tree Of Life” uses the Darwinian archetype as an entry point into 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.