Turtle Island, McKay offer unique musical collaboration Thursday

Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Courtesy photo
Performing a 7:30 p.m. show Thursday at Kresge Auditorium, singer and multi-instrumentalist Nellie McKay (center) will join forces with the Turtle Island Quartet (Mateusz Smoczynski, Mark Summer, Benjamin von Gutzeit and David Balakrishnan) for a concert pairing classical instrumentation with 20th century German and American jazz and standards.

Bringing a broad, varied repertoire to the Kresge Auditorium stage, the collaboration of the Turtle Island Quartet and Nellie McKay will play a 7:30 p.m. show on Thursday, Nov. 14.

While the collaboration between the two-time Grammy Award-winning string quartet and the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has been in the works for nearly a year, they have only been playing together live since October.

This means the Greencastle audience is still among the first to hear the arrangements.

"The idea of performing with Nellie came up and it just seemed like such an interesting idea," Turtle Island cellist and founding member Mark Summer told the Banner Graphic. "She's got a lot of moves because, just instrumentally she's playing marimba and she's playing piano and she's playing ukulele."

These moves play right into the hands of Turtle Island, as the ensemble has spent nearly three decades making rock, jazz and other forms of music with their classical instruments.

"We love lots of possibilities because Turtle Island is all about taking this classical form of two violins, viola and cello and molding it into being able to play just about any style we wish," Summer said.

McKay, who has performed as a stage actress as well as a musician, specializes in the music of 1920s Berlin as well as jazz standards popularized by Billie Holiday.

These will be highlighted in the concert, but much more ground will be covered.

McKay said bringing a string quartet to music she already plays has been an excellent experience.

"I want strings on everything now. I'd like to take them home with me," she said. "The very human quality of a stringed instrument, it's different than a brassy sound or a percussive sound. I know I'm really going to miss it when I go back to playing my solo shows."

Some of the pieces selected for the program include standards such as "I Remember You," "Mean To Me" and "I Cover The Waterfront," as well as the more offbeat, such as Marlene Dietrich's sultry version of "Black Market" and "Alabama Song," the German cabaret tune revived in modern times by The Doors.

Also included is a touch of Doris Day, whose music was revisited by McKay on her recent recording "Normal as Blueberry Pie." Songs by Billy Strayhorn complete a night of musical revelry.

Adjusting to this wide variety of tunes has been the challenging and fun part of preparing for the collaboration, Summer said, as McKay and each of the Turtle Island members -- Summer, Mateusz Smoczynki, Benjamin von Gutzeit and "composer in residence" David Balakrishnan -- have prepared arrangements for the concert.

"Some of it was taking her (McKay's) music and adapting it so the quartet could be covering the band parts," Summer said. "That's just what Turtle Island does so well is imitating the sound of instruments that you'd normally find in a band. In a jazz band it would be using the cello as a walking bass and the violins and violas as drummers using this technique called the chop."

This strength has been showcased in the band's two most recent releases, the Grammy-winning 2007 record "A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane" and 2010's "Have You Ever Been...? The Music of Jimi Hendrix and David Balakrishnan."

McKay's catalogue will offer them a new challenge as they prepare to channel a reggae band for her song "Caribbean Time."

"It's an opportunity for both Nellie and Turtle Island to play to each other's audiences," Summer said. "We'll be doing some Turtle Island solo tunes and she'll be doing Nellie solo tunes by herself and then we come together."

General admission tickets are $10--15 and are available online and at the Green Center box office. Tickets for students, seniors and children are free, thanks to season sponsors Judson and Joyce Green.

For assistance with obtaining tickets, visit www.depauw.edu/music/tickets or stop by or call the Green Center box office, 658-4827.

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