PBS.org Art Beat, Music: “Harlem Quartet, Strads 'Take the A Train'”

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

PBS.org NewsHour: Art Beat – Music

Harlem Quartet, Strads 'Take the A Train'

Posted by Mike Melia, December 31, 2008

The Harlem Quartet continues to break new ground in the world of classical music, and at the group's recent performance at the Library of Congress, a bit of music history was made, too. "There's definitely been people who have played jazz on a Strad before, no doubt," first violin Ilmar Gavilan said, referring to the legendary instruments made by Antonio Stradivari and the jazz standard written by Billy Strayhorn for Duke Ellington's orchestra. "But a quartet playing jazz, and specifically this arrangement, which is pretty recent, I think I'm going to go out on a limb -- this is history!" [Continue Reading] [The Harlem Quartet is an ensemble of the Sphinx Organization, whose Founder/President, Aaron P. Dworkin (b. 1970), is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

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