Turtle Island String Quartet - Turtle Island String Quartet (1988)

The Turtle Island String Quartet was born in 1985 and derived its name from creation mythology found in Native American Folklore. The quartet fuses the classical quartet aesthetic with contemporary American musical styles, which include folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, rock, hip-hop, as well as music of Latin America and India. They have appeared on a dozen recordings on labels such as Windham Hill, Chandos, Koch and Telarc, soundtracks for major motion pictures, TV and radio credits, and collaborations with famed artists such as clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, Manhattan Transfer, The, pianists Billy Taylor and Kenny Barron, the Ying Quartet and the Parsons Dance Company. This is its first CD.

Turtle Island made its Windham Hills recording debut in 1988 with Turtle Island String Quartet, an album that Down Beat commented "swings with distinction". Featuring such jazz standards as Miles Davis’s "Milestones", Dizzy Gillespie’s "Night in Tunisia", Oliver Stone’s "Stolen Moments" and Bud Powell’s "Tempus Fugit", it also includes original compositions that are a hybrid of bluegrass, Indian, and European music. The album is made distinctive by its unusual rhythmic techniques. With no traditional piano or bass drum accompaniment, the Turtle Islanders create a strong backbeat by stretching their strings to the limit. "The violin can produce acoustically all the sounds rock guitar players buy those pedals to create electronically", Balakrishnan told Newsweek. To do so, the musicians pluck strings, run their bows over miked instruments or the side of a violin to create a brush effect, and use the "chop". "The chop is something we use... to get the sound of the drums or the rhythm guitar sound", Balakrishnan explained in the Detroit News. "That gives the really important backbeat groove that we need to create the Swing feel".

Tracklist:
1. Stolen Moments
2. A A Night in Tunisia
3. Milestones
4. Tempus Fugit
5. String Quartet No.1: Balapadem. Eurasian Hoedown
6. String Quartet No.1: Balapadem. Eó
7. String Quartet No.1: Balapadem. Variations on My Father's Footsteps
8. String Quartet No.1: Balapadem. Hindu Toes
9. The Decline of an American string quartet: Recline
10. The Decline of an American string quartet: Decline
11. The Decline of an American string quartet: Geosyncline
12. The Decline of an American string quartet: No Lyin'
13. The Decline of an American string quartet: But No
14. The Decline of an American string quartet: Benign
15. The Decline of an American string quartet: Scherzoid

Personnel:
David Balakrishnan: violin
Darol Anger: violin, octave violin
Irene Sazer: viola, violin
Mark Summer: violoncello