And now for something completely different… Turtle Island Quartet. What are the limits of classical music and where are they? Is there a definable line that can be drawn to label some music as “classical” and other as “not belonging,” however good it might be? Perhaps the modified Supreme Court test could work: “I know it when I hear it.” But sometimes even this test gives ambiguous results. Kronos Quartet inhabits this borderline land, and now the Turtle Island Quartet has just come out with yet another one of their typecast-defying CDs, this one based on the music of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan. As Andy Summers writes, “Translating the music of Jimi Hendrix visceral electric guitar music into the vernacular of the classical string quartet seems like an improbably idea. Yet in this remarkable recording…[the quartet] has once again hit what at first might seem a difficult target.” Here’s Jimi Hendrix’s “1983… A Merman I Should Turn To Be,” arranged by the violinist, composer, and the founder of Turtle Island Quartet David Balakrishnan. We’re not sure about the labels, but we think it sounds great.
October 25, 2010
And now for something completely different… Turtle Island Quartet. What are the limits of classical music and where are they? Is there a definable line that can be drawn to label some music as “classical” and other as “not belonging,” however good it might be? Perhaps the modified Supreme Court test could work: “I know it when I hear it.” But sometimes even this test gives ambiguous results. Kronos Quartet inhabits this borderline land, and now the Turtle Island Quartet has just come out with yet another one of their typecast-defying CDs, this one based on the music of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan. As Andy Summers writes, “Translating the music of Jimi Hendrix visceral electric guitar music into the vernacular of the classical string quartet seems like an improbably idea. Yet in this remarkable recording…[the quartet] has once again hit what at first might seem a difficult target.” Here’s Jimi Hendrix’s “1983… A Merman I Should Turn To Be,” arranged by the violinist, composer, and the founder of Turtle Island Quartet David Balakrishnan. We’re not sure about the labels, but we think it sounds great.