Have You Ever Been...?

Turtle Island Quartet (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B003JFCGO6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,202 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2011 GRAMMY NOMINEE: BEST ENGINEERED ALBUM, CLASSICAL

Have You Ever Been...? explores and celebrates the legacy of guitar rock icon Jimi Hendrix in grand TIQ style. At the peak of his creative powers in the late 1960s, Jimi Hendrix redefined the potential of not only the guitar but the entire genre of rock. Armed with an unprecedented combination of technical skills and compositional insight, he drew a blueprint that continues to challenge guitarists in particular and musicians of all stripes more than four decades later.

In many ways, Turtle Island Quartet - led by founding violinist David Balakrishnan, a Hendrix fan since his teenage years - has taken Hendrix's cue in the course of their 25-year career by reexamining and reconstructing conventional genres of music and seeking new permutations of style, technique and composition. This ongoing mission of exploration and innovation was most recently exemplified in their Grammy winning 2007 recording, A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane, in which the quartet reinterprets the music of one of the most pivotal figures in the history of jazz by injecting it with their own signature rhythmic innovations and multicultural influences.

Three years later, TIQ - whose current lineup includes Balakrishnan along with co-founder cellist Mark Summer, violinist Mads Tolling and newcomer violist Jeremy Kittel - pushes the edge of their stylistic comfort zone a step further with their latest recording, Have You Ever Been...?, an exploration of the music of Hendrix coupled with a cross genre twist on an old story, Balakrishnan's Tree Of Life. "A stellar recording and achievement," says guitarist Andy Summers, one of the many high-profile heirs to the Hendrix legacy through his work with the Police and beyond, and author of the liner notes to Have You Ever Been...? The genesis of Have You Ever Been...? can be traced back to the two Hendrix concerts at the L.A. Forum - one in 1969 and the other in 1970 - that Balakrishnan attended as a teenager. Within days, he was practicing Hendrix guitar riffs on his violin. Decades later, around the time of the release of A Love Supreme, Balakrishnan visited the Woodstock Museum in Bethel, New York, and watched a video of Hendrix's legendary performances at the three-day rock festival in 1969 that defined a generation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous new groove, September 5, 2010

By 

Michael Perman "Innovation Guy" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Have You Ever Been...? (Audio CD)

I've run through Turtle Island's new CD "Have You Ever Been" a few times now and keep discovering hidden gems in the tonality and intersection of melodies. Delightfully complex and inspiring to to here original cuts and new interpretations of music I love. It would be hard to imagine "Along the Watchtower" and "Hey Joe" as classical acoustic jazz but it works amazingly well. I found myself cheating sometimes and jumping ahead to my favorite tunes, But then on the third listen I became more patient and transcendental and "waited for it" through all the luxurious middle including the Ashwattha masterpiece. This is fantastic work - I just wish there was a 33LP I could touch and feel and enjoy the cover art. Net, this album lets me live in my nostalgic class rock zone but appropriately moves me forward with the times, alas grand progress and innovation. Thanks guys!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hendrix and Turtle Island, September 9, 2010

By 

John R. Conway (Niles, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Have You Ever Been...? (Audio CD)

The soulful, supple, and energetic bowing and fingering of the Turtle Island Quartet do Hendrix's music more justice than I had hoped. It's not Jimi, but it's not bad either. Some of David Balakrishnan's own compositions, which occupy about half of this CD, are a nice complement to such Hendrix favorites as "Voodoo Chile" and Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" as interpreted by Hendrix and reinterpreted by the Quartet. Nice work, boys.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jimi Hendrix is smiling from Above., October 21, 2010

By 

Richard Goldstein (TORRANCE, CA, US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Have You Ever Been...? (Audio CD)

I am sure that Jimi would never have believed that his music would have ever spawned a creation like this. The last thing he ever thought when he sat down was how it would sound with string instruments interpreting this music. But fortunately the two-time Grammy winning boys of Turtle Island did! The magic of this music has been recreated by the genius of Dave Balakrishnan. Jump onto vimeo and check out their performances. Have You Ever Been...? is one of the most sophisticted CD's I have ever listened to in a long time. The combination of the familiar rock melodies of a 60's icon with the traditional classical strings is a marriage that is long overdo. This is a truly a feast for the hear drums! This is a must have CD for any fan of Jimi, the Turtles or just MUSIC!