Have You Ever Been … ?: The Music of Jimi Hendrix & the Music of David Balakrishnan by Turtle Island Quartet (review)

Since their formation over twenty-five years ago, the Turtle Island Quartet has become a staple of the classical crossover genre, incorporating elements of jazz improvisation into the string quartet medium by reinterpreting the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. In their new release Have You Ever Been … ?, the quartet tackles the music of Jimi Hendrix. The recording falls into three sections: a suite of songs adapted directly from Electric Ladyland; two works unrelated to the music of Hendrix (a cover of John McLaughlin’s jazz-fusion classic To Bop or Not to Beand Tree of Life, a four-movement work written by the quartet’s founder David Balakrishnan); and last, another set of creative interpretations of Hendrix’s music. Though the music of the middle section sits somewhat uneasily alongside the Hendrix material, Balakrishnan’s original composition—which incorporates classical Indian, Afro-Caribbean, and jazz elements—certainly deserves listening.

The notion of adapting Hendrix’s music for string quartet brings a unique set of musical challenges. Unlike the jazz classics adapted in the Turtle Island Quartet’s earlier projects—which could be addressed primarily in melodic, gestural, harmonic, and rhythmic terms—Hendrix’s music involved extensive timbral experimentation through electronic amplification, processing, and studio manipulation. Some earlier string quartet renditions of Hendrix—the Kronos Quartet’s “Purple Haze,” for example—have addressed this by attempting to imitate the power and intensity of Hendrix’s singular sound. The Turtle Island Quartet opts for another route by focusing on the polyphonic elements of the music, thus emphasizing the innate strengths of a string quartet. In a 2010 NPR music interview (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129429224), Balakrishnan describes Hendrix as

composing the way somebody would write for string quartet… . With Electric Ladylandhe was really layering melodies … and the way he played the guitar, he was able to get that sinuous vibrato that creates this texture and bed of fragments laid on top of each other—perfect for a string quartet like Turtle Island.

The quartet’s version of “1983 … A Merman I Should Turn to Be” serves as a good example of their emphasis on polyphony. During the rendition of the opening guitar solo by the viola, the violins bring out countermelodies embedded in the accompanying guitar line—countermelodies that can easily pass unnoticed in the heavy texture of the original 1968 recording.

Aside from the somewhat-novel interest in drawing out Hendrix’s layered melodies, questions remain about the sound itself and the ability to translate Hendrix’s distinct sonorities to the string quartet. While the Turtle Island Quartet’s sound certainly remains divergent from the deep and full-bodied sound of the original rock band, some aural effects transfer over remarkably well. Mark Summer’s percussive cello technique provides the essential elements of the rock rhythm section, and his chop bowing in the introduction of “Voodoo Child” effectively captures the wah-wah effect of the Hendrix original. Also, the wailing string solos throughout the recording generally give a satisfying interpretation of the aggressive sustain of Hendrix’s guitar solos. Still, the aural disparity between the timbre of the string quartet and Hendrix’s vocal tone remains a definite weakness. For example, the string quartet arrangement of “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)” begins with a re-creation of the reverb-drenched clicks of the original track, followed by a violin rendition of Hendrix’s vocal melody. The contrast between the rock-band reverb and the comparably thin violin melody remains a bit jarring, drawing the listener into the world of Hendrix only to push him or her right back out. The string adaptation of Hendrix’s vocal melody in “1983 … A Merman I Should Turn to Be” similarly falls short. The vocal line, with its lack of real melodic direction or interest...