Times Herald Record: “Harlem Quartet as part of Newburgh Chamber Music”

[Take the 'A' Train; The Harlem Quartet; White Pine Music (2007)]

By JAMES F. COTTER
For the Times Herald Record
February 20, 2008

“NEWBURGH, NY — Newburgh Chamber Music opened its new concert series with a remarkable group, the Harlem Quartet, only in its second year of existence yet already making its place on the musical map.

The four string players — violinists Ilmar Gavilan and Melissa White, violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez and cellist Desmond Neysmith — are virtuoso performers each in their own right, with on-target technique, boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm. Their enjoyment in playing the music with one another communicated directly with the large and responsive audience.”

“Their versatility was challenged by Wynton Marsalis' String Quartet No. 1 (1980), written when he was only 20. Inspired by his childhood memories of New Orleans octoroon balls and city life, the work is in multiple parts, four of which the quartet performed: II. Mating Calls and Delta Rhythms; III. Creole Contradanzas; VII. Rampart Street Row House Rag; and V. Hellbound Highball.”

"Take the 'A' Train, the Duke Ellington signature tune by Billy Strayhorn, arranged by Paul Chihara, made for the perfect farewell with the four strings engaging in an intricate exchange that exercised exact timing and alert response. For an encore, the group offered My Little Conga, with tempo plucked on strings, stretched out by bowing and drummed on their instruments into a weaving conga line.” Full Article