The Turtle Island String Quartet at El Camino College's Center for the Arts - with special guest Paquito D'Rivera - Artículo Breve

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2002 by Luis Tamargo

Comprised of Evan Price (violin), David Balakrishnan (violin, baritone violin), Danny Seindenberg (viola) and Mark Summer (cello), the Turtle Island String Quartet (TISQ)joined forces with Paquito D'Rivera (clarinet) at El Camino College's Marsee Auditorium--practically located within walking distance from LATIN BEAT's Gardena, California headquarters--on February 16, 2002. Reforming the classical clarinet quintet format originated by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (the father of the modern concerto), Latin America's greatest living clarinetist and the abovementioned chamber tortoises fused classical, jazz, Caribbean and Brazilian elements, while placing emphasis on the elegant Cuban danzón tradition. A passionate genre derived from the contradanza, the danzón bears the mark of Europe in its form and harmony, but owes its keen energy to the cinquillo, a rhythmic element of African origin which is also found in the Lucumí drumming tradition. Appropriately titled "La Jicotea," * the program's centerpiece was written for TISQ by the Havanese Paq-Man, who offered the following commentary: "For a long time I have had the desire to write something for this (chamber music) genre. `La Jicotea' is a piece that combines my Latin American roots and the jazz language with the traditions of the string quartet, and I can't think of a better group to perform this piece than the accomplished musicians of the Turtle Island String Quartet." D'Rivera is not exaggerating: Each Turtle Island member is accomplished in the fields of improvisation, composition and orchestration. The attending LATIN BEAT scribes were extremely impressed with their performance, including the unique multi-timbered style and phenomenal pizzicato technique displayed by Mark Summer, one of the outstanding jazz cellists of our time. Like the other musical turtles on stage, Summer is one of those rare practitioners of the classical quartet esthetic who can swing as hard as any modern jazz player. No wonder Paquito kept smiling throughout the entire gig.

* The term jicotea is used in Cuba to refer to a small fresh-water turtle regarded as a sacred chelonian reptile in the Lucumí religion. The jicotea (known in Lucumí as Ayapá) even acts as an archetype for the Cuban condition, both past and present, according to the description provided by Lydia Cabrera, the most eminent writer of Afro-Cuban folklore: "The weakest of all creatures, the most conscious of his tiny size and impotence, he is capable of humiliating the very strongest animals--tigers, lions, elephants, the white slave masters and his communist rulers today--through his small treasons, ingenious mischief and hilarious sense of irony."