The Turtle Island Quartet (TIQ) has a richly varied history.
The string ensemble is known for being openminded in its approach to genre, and has performed works by everyone from Bach to Dizzy Gillespie to Jimi Hendrix. Each of its albums is a vivid document of the ensemble’s creative explorations at a given point in time.
However, its recent album Island Prayers (Azica Records) marks a return to TIQ’s origins: new works.
The group was founded as an improv-based ensemble in 1985 by three peers, violinist and resident composer David Balakrishnan, violinist Darol Anger, and cellist Mark Summer. While TIQ has fielded 18 different members since its founding, Balakrishnan has served as Turtle Island’s throughline and enforced its focus on “Transcending Style.” (His Master’s thesis on the subject helped to set Turtle Island’s aesthetic.)
The current iteration includes millennial musicians Gabriel Terracciano (second violin), Benjamin von Gutzeit (viola) and Naseem Alatrash (cello) — the present makeup recalls jazz drummer Elvin Jones’s Jazz Machine in cross-generational spirit.
Island Prayers’ centerpiece is Balakrishnan’s three-movement, 15-minute title composition that, according to his liner notes, tracks an interpersonal conflict and resolution.
“Island Prayer: 1. Dialogue” pulses with an uptempo energy that represents a lively exchange of ideas. “At a certain point, reaching a peak of intensity, they have exhausted themselves, and the possibility of resolution makes its first appearance,” Balakrishnan writes. That resolution comes in “Island Prayer: 2. Atonement” with its long tones and deeply felt pathos, which transitions directly into “Island Prayers: III. Redemption” which expresses TIQ’s trademark spirit and joy that one hears and feels at the ensemble’s concerts.
Banjo player, vocalist, and Silkroad Ensemble artistic director Rhiannon Giddens is an ideal TIQ collaborator. Her arrangement of the traditional jig “Pompey Ran Away” showcases both the quartet’s buoyancy and its interconnectivity. Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s tone poem “Little Loksi” (Little Turtle) based on Chickasaw author Trey Hays’s book of the same name, is an all-ages sonic quest with dramatic pizzicato accents.
TIQ has spent extensive time in the studio and especially on the road with Terence Blanchard and his E-Collective. The trumpeter, composer, and SFJAZZ artistic director’s “Turtle Trajectory” cements the fellowship with aplomb.
Balakrishnan’s “Groove in the Louvre” acts as a de facto encore and presents the TIQ with playful authority.
