Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Turtle Island String Quartet: A Love Supreme: The Legacy...

Turtle Island String Quartet: A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane

By C. Michael Bailey
April 7, 2007
View read count

Turtle Island String Quartet: A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane

John Coltrane has been the inspiration for a number of musical considerations. Karrin Allyson's Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane (Concord, 2001) was a brilliantly well-conceived thematic recording. The Marsalis brothers each released Coltrane-related thoughts in Wynton's Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra A Love Supreme (Palmetto, 2005) and Branford's Branford Marsalis Quartet Performs Coltrane's A Love Supreme Live in Amsterdam (Marsalis Music, 2004). Add the Turtle Island String Quartet to the mix with its A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane.

The TISQ has already been plowing the field of string quartet innovation with recordings that include 4 + Four (Telarc, 2005). On that recording, the quartet interpreted Oliver Nelson's sublime "Yearnin' from his masterpiece Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1964). The Quartet has now extrapolated that sublimity to the music of John Coltrane. This is no silly attempt to cram Coltrane's square peg into a round classical hole. There is nothing Third Stream, fusion, or otherwise going on here. This is jazz, presented by four superb musicians and improvisers.

The listener will have no trouble recognizing this music as Coltrane's or music associated with him. The suite "A Love Supreme is engagingly played, summoning a string plainchant from "Acknowledgment, a gothic ragtime from "Resolution, a manic Le Hot Club du France "Pursuance, and a Celtic, Lisztian "Psalm. Also present are the usual suspects. "'Round Midnight is a crime noir soundtrack; "My Favorite Things is a beautiful reduction. The Quartet does not merely play Coltrane's exact notes. Instead it transforms the piece to a different musical plane of thought. "Naima is plaintive as a ballad, calm and soothing. Such a recording makes one wonder what the TISQ have up their sleeve next.

Track Listing

Moment's Notice; La Danse du Bonheur; Model Trane; A Love Supreme: Acknowledgment; Resolution, Pursuance, Psalm; 'Round Midnight; Countdown; My Favorite Things; Naima; Song To John; So What (Bonus Track).

Personnel

Turtle Island Quartet

band / ensemble / orchestra

David Balakrishnan: violin; Mark Summer: cello; Evan Price: violin; Mads Tolling: viola.

Album information

Title: A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane | Year Released: 2007 | Record Label: Telarc Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

ECM Guitar: Prezens; The Third Quart...
< Previous

A New Third Stream: Yitzhak Yedid
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.