Have You Ever Been... ?

25年以上のキャリアを持つユニークなバンド、タートル・アイランド・カルテットの2010年作。リーダーでヴァイオリニストのデヴィッド・バラクリシュナンが10代の頃からファンで、ギターのみならずロックの歴史を変えた偉大なジミ・ヘンドリックスの音楽を探求、トリビュートを捧げる作品。弦楽四重奏というクラシカルなスタイルでこれまでもさまざまな音楽への探求でそのユニークな視点と演奏が音楽ファンに支持を得てきた彼らならではのスタイリッシュなサウンドを展開。2007年にリリースしたはジョン・コルトレーンの『A Love Supreme(至上の愛)』に取り組んだアルバムがグラミー賞を受賞、その作品以来3年振りとなる1枚！

In 2010, San Francisco's Turtle Island Quartet and Concord Records came out with an album of Jimi Hendrix covers mingled with original compositions by John McLaughlin and violinist David Balakrishnan, entitled Have You Ever Been...? Preceded in 2007 by their Coltrane tribute album, A Love Supreme, this recording finds the group continuing to explore creative methodology and material selection as they had over the preceding decade. Violinists Balakrishnan and Mads Tolling, violist Jeremy Kittel, and cellist Mark Summer interact in ways that suggest affinities with performers signed by European labels like Soul Note, or (especially during Balakrishnan's beautifully composed suite) even ECM. The field of modern chamber string groups that handle expanded repertoire has become more thickly populated than it was when the Turtle Islanders first convened a quarter-century before this recording was made. The awesomely stern, less improvisationally inclined Kronos Quartet naturally comes to mind, as do Maxine Roach and the Uptown String Quartet. Generally speaking, the Turtle Island Quartet is less likely to stand you on your ear and take your breath away than the mighty String Trio of New York. But there are parallels, well worth exploring, between all of the groups mentioned here. And while the Hendrix covers are painted in suitably bold colors, Balakrishnan's four-part "Tree of Life" feels a bit like something akin to the work of James Emery or Colin Walcott. So maybe you need to cop a listen. ~ arwulf arwulf