The Classical Convergence Series, co-presented by Colorado State University and the Lincoln Center, continues its second season with a striking performance at Colorado State University with Turtle Island Quartet, a boundary-pushing, classical string quartet on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Griffin Concert Hall at the University Center for the Arts, located at 1400 Remington St.
Its name derived from creation mythology found in Native American Folklore, the Turtle Island Quartet has been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006 and 2008 Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet aesthetic with contemporary American musical styles that has redefined the art form.
Tickets: $25/public, $10/student, tickets.lctix.com or (970) 221-6730
Turtle Island Program
Reaching for lyricism and gentler textures as a reaction to the fiery sounds of bebop, the renowned musicians who performed on the seminal recording, Birth of the Cool, consider it a tipping point towards the style that became known as “Cool Jazz.” The living embodiment of cool, Miles Davis, and his colleagues, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, etc., set the table for a slew of legendary groups that shared their vision. From the Modern Jazz Quartet and Gunther Schuller of third stream music, to the west coast sounds of the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Paul Desmond, to the iconoclastic melodic lines of pianist Lennie Tristano, their particular brand of innovative genius echoed into the myriad jazz fusion blends of the seventies and eighties. Ultimately, this created the perfect conditions for an audacious group of four string players equally grounded in jazz improvisation and classical technique, to split the Eurocentric string quartet atom.
In addition to employing their signature groove-based rhythmic techniques to transform classic selections from the recording of Birth of the Cool such as Israel, Venus De Milo, and Jeru into jazz string quartet masterpieces, the two time GRAMMY® winning Turtle Island Quartet will take a wide swath through the many other avenues traversed by these intrepid explorers of cool. Perennial favorites such as Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo A La Turk and Gerry Mulligan’s Bernie’s Tune conjoin with Miles Davis’s dreamy Miles Ahead, and the Modern Jazz Quartet’s darker Django. The program will also feature original compositions that share the cross genre musical stamp endemic to this hallowed mode of jazz music making.
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