Pop and Jazz Reviews : Turtle Island String Quartet at Royce Hall

The Turtle Island String Quartet, heard in concert Saturday at Royce Hall, has earned a deserved reputation for crossing idiomatic lines. But there is much more than that to its accomplishments.

This unique unit leaps over continents, decades and centuries. Within the parameters of a single arrangement the group may move seamlessly from Stephen Foster-like simplicity to John Coltrane-like complexity, from mainstream jazz to Eastern sounds, even Indian-tinted bluegrass.

The violinists David Balakrishnan and Darol Anger, violist Katrina Wreede and cellist Mark Summer all being gifted as composers, arrangers and improvising soloists, it is all but impossible to single out any member for special praise.

A slight edge might go to Balakrishnan for his solos--he is a Space-Age Stephane Grappelli--and for his original works such as the vaulting “Skylife,” as well as his versions of standards by Django Reinhardt, Benny Goodman and Chick Corea. But then there were the charts by Darol Anger, their sources as diversified as Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” and Gershwin’s “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.”

Wreede’s improvisations on viola are the only outstanding jazz contributions on this instrument. Mark Summer, composer of “Gettysburg,” used the cello for every purpose, from bowing and plucking to occasional slapping, or simply supplying string-bass style rhythm.

Here, in short, are four artists whose eclecticism is matched by their ability to cohere, whether in skillfully limned harmony or savage counterpoint. Other jazz-oriented string quartets are making valuable contributions, but Turtle Island by now is more than an island. It’s an impregnable fortress to which nobody can come close.