Customer Reviews

Have You Ever Been...?

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

THIS IS AN AMAZING ALBUM. THE IDEA OF A STRING QUARTET PLAYING PLAYING MUSIC OF ROCKERS LIKE JIMMIE HENDRIX WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED ABSURD DURING THE 60'S AND 70'S, BUT THE VERSATILE MUSICIANS OF THE TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET MAKE IT WORK BEAUTIFULLY. THIS DISC IS A GEM, AND WE WOULD RECOMMEND IT WITHOUT RESERVATI0N.

Harmonically interesting these performances have very low energy levels and lack any of the drive that marked the originals. Overall not very interesting.

Kronos has only recorded one Hendrix tune - Purple Haze - and sometimes plays Star Spangled Banner as an encore. Both show what a quartet can do with this music.