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Jethro Tull

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Interview with Ian Anderson - The String Quartets
Fargo opening | Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath
Behind The Scenes Carducci Quartet Recording
1 In the Past
2 Sossity Waiting
3 Bungle
4 We Used to Bach
5 Farm, the Fourway
6 Songs and Horses
7 Only the Giving
8 Loco
9 Pass the Bottle
10 Velvet Gold
11 Ring Out These Bells
12 Aquafugue
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Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet have just released - Jethro Tull: The String Quartets Says Anderson: "I felt that there were some songs rather special to me which featured the string quartet such as "A Christmas Song," "Reasons For Waiting" and "Wond'ring Aloud." These were my first experiences of working with a quartet. John [O'Hara] came up with a few suggestions of his own which presented challenges. All had an intimacy and presence which I looked forward to recapturing...."

About his approach to the orchestration, O'Hara explains: "There seemed little point in transcribing the band parts and distributing them to the players. I felt a responsibility to delve deeper and offer a new imagining of each piece. An orchestrator's job is to arrange and compose a new version of an existing work. However, I also felt a responsibility to the Jethro Tull listeners who cherish this material and may not welcome a radical rendition of a beloved song. My ambition was to create a thought-provoking album that remains true to Ian's compositions."

Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet have just released "Loco (Locomotive Breath)" from the new album Jethro Tull: The String Quartets, which topped the Billboard Classical Charts. "Loco" is a string quartet arrangement of "Locomotive Breath," Jethro Tull's 1978 hit off the group's album Bursting Out.  The String Quartets' version of "Locomotive Breath" is an instrumental that features violin, viola, cello, and bass, with Ian Anderson on flute.  It was arranged by Ian's keyboardist John O'Hara, whose mission was to "delve deeper and offer a new imagining of each piece. An orchestrator's job is to arrange and compose a new version of an existing work." O'Hara also felt "a responsibility to the Jethro Tull listeners who cherish this material and may not welcome a radical rendition of a beloved song."

Formed in 1968, Jethro Tull has released 30 studio and live albums, selling more than 60 million copies worldwide. With nearly 50 years' history, the band has performed more than 3,000 concerts in 40 countries, playing 100+ concerts each year. Now, Ian Anderson, John O'Hara, and the Carducci Quartet are set to release Jethro Tull: The String Quartets, a collection of 12 re-imagined Tull classics, allowing Tull fans and classical music connoisseurs to enjoy the band's vast catalog in a new way.

  • 10 Best Jethro Tull songs of all time / SINGERSROOM
    Posted At: April 15, 2024 12:00 AM
    SINGERSROOM's Edward Tomlin writes… Jethro Tull is a British progressive rock band formed in 1967. The band is known for its distinctive sound, characterized by Ian Anderson’s flute playing, complex arrangements, and eclectic fusion of rock, folk, blues, and classical music.The band’s namesake, Jethro Tull, was an 18th-century English agriculturalist who invented the seed drill, but the band’s music has lit...
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  • Carducci Quartet & Ensemble Moliere conclude 'Leamington Music' winter season with baroque and classical mastery / bnn
    Posted At: March 6, 2024 12:00 AM
    The Winter Season of Leamington Music ends with performances by Carducci Quartet and Ensemble Molière, showcasing classical finesse and Baroque brilliance.bnn's Hadeel Hashem Leamington Music's Winter Season is set to end on a high note with performances by the renowned Carducci Quartet and the acclaimed Ensemble Molière. The Carducci Quartet will grace the stage at Leamington's Royal Pump Rooms, presenting...
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  • Jethro Tull launches video for 'Hammer On Hammer' from new album: 'RokFlote' / METAL PLANET
    Posted At: April 9, 2023 12:00 AM
    METAL PLANET writes…..Jethro Tull are set to release their 23rd studio album, ‘RökFlöte’, on April 21st 2023 via InsideOutMusic. Following 2022’s ‘The Zealot Gene’, the band’s first album in two decades, Ian Anderson and the band are returning with a 12-track record based on the characters and roles of some of the principle gods of the old Norse paganism, and at the same time exploring the ‘RökFlöte’ – rock...
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  • Supporting their new album: 'RokFlote,' Jethro Tull announces London show for May / LOUDER
    Posted At: February 7, 2023 12:00 AM
    Jethro Tull were a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock, folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn't dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums. At the same time, critics rarely took them seriously, and they were off the cutting-edge of popular music by the end of the '70s. But n...
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  • Carducci String Quartet collaborates with Myla Lichtman-Fields for a neatly conceived words and music project / theStrad
    Posted At: February 2, 2023 12:00 AM
    An internationally renowned Anglo-Irish string quartet based in the UK, the versatile and award-winning Carducci String Quartet has performed everything from brand new quartets, classic works by Haydn, complete Shostakovich cycles, and even partnered with folk-rock icon Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including Concert Artists Guild Int...
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  • Carducci Quartet. Assured intricacy and exuberant intensity traces an environmental thread / The Guardian
    Posted At: September 25, 2022 12:00 AM
    Covering three works, including a European premiere of a piece by John Luther Adams, The Carducci Quartet ( Matthew Denton, Michelle Fleming, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, Emma Denton) explored its full range of colour in this return to familiar surroundingsThe Guardian's Rian Evans writes…..A principal theme of this year’s Vale of Glamorgan festival is the natural world and our sense of place, with the music of Joh...
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  • The Carducci Quartet set for Investec International String Quartet series / The Leamington Observer
    Posted At: November 25, 2021 12:00 AM

    The Leamington Observer writes.....The Anglo-Irish Quartet will perform at the Pump Rooms in Leamington - Essex County, Ontario, Canada on Friday December 3. The programme for the concert consists of Haydn's Quartet Opus 33 No 2 ‘The Joke', Shostakovich's Quartet No 7 and Beethoven's Quartet in A minor Opus 132. The Carducci Quartet has made a speciality of the full cycle of 15 quartets by Shostako...
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  • Jethro Tull - Aqualung turns 51 and is the 101.5WPDH - Album of the Week
    Posted At: January 12, 2021 12:00 AM

    This week on the WPDH Album of the Week, 101.5WPDH - Pougheepsie NY features the fourth album from Jethro Tull, Aqualung. Smitty writes......Aqualung was released on March 19, 1971, through Chrysalis Records. It is regarded as a concept album and falls under multiple classifications including progressive rock, folk-rock, and hard rock. The album was recorded between April of 1970 and February of...
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  • Ian Anderson and Leslie Mandoki say 'We Say Thank You' to honour essential workers during Covid-19 pandemic / LOUDER
    Posted At: April 11, 2020 12:00 AM

    Ian Anderson has teamed up with his friend, German-Hungarian musician Leslie Mandoki, on a song that honours essential workers during the Covid-19 crisis. We Say Thank You is a dedication to everyone on the frontline, from the doctors to grocery store workers, in the unbelievable Coronavirus battle. "My first reaction was - hopefully not another sanctimonious, self-serving and smug pop star utterance we ...
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  • This week's BBC Music Magazine 'download' is from Carducci Quartet, Julian Bliss with 'Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A'
    Posted At: January 16, 2019 12:00 AM

    This week's free download is the third movement from Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A, K581. It is performed by the Carducci Quartet with clarinettist Julian Bliss and recorded for Signum Records. This is Mozart's only completed clarinet quintet and was written for the clarinettist Anton Stadler, who Mozart also wrote his Clarinet Concerto for. It was written at the end of Mozart's life, in...
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  • Ian Anderson celebrates 50 years of Jethro Tull at the Fox / St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Posted At: June 30, 2018 12:00 AM

    Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was only 29 when he mused about being "too old to rock 'n' roll but too young to die." If you're the latter, his song of that title argues, you're still not the former. Now, at age 70, it would seem his feelings on the matter haven't changed. Though the band ended in 2012 and Anderson worked under his own name years before that, the veteran singer, flutist and guita...
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  • Rock stars who became missile consultants, salmon farmers and tugboat captains / The Independent
    Posted At: January 7, 2018 12:00 AM

    Andrew Denny suggested this list a long time ago, and started it off with Alex James of Blur (now a cheesemaker), and Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden – and airline pilot. A popular list this week, which was hard to whittle down to 10.  1. Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, became a missile consultant and chair of the US Civilian Advisory Board for Balli...
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  • Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick makes windsorsquare: Top 10 classic rock albums
    Posted At: January 2, 2018 12:00 AM

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; min-height: 13.0px} Musical tastes travel a route to all genres from classical to classic rock, from hip hop to funk, from adult contemporary to big band, and all in between. Each genre can be stratified and branched off, creating a myriad and often confusing pattern of group ...
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  • '50 years of Jethro Tull' tour set for UK / Best Classic Bands
    Posted At: August 30, 2017 12:00 AM

    It was on Feb. 2, 1968 at the Marquee Club on London's Wardour Street that Jethro Tull first performed under that name. To celebrate their golden anniversary, founder/bandleader Ian Anderson will present "50 years of Jethro Tull" in eight U.K. concerts during April 2018. Other tour dates will be announced soon. Founder, frontman and flutist (and sometimes acoustic guitarist) Ian Anderson said on the band...
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  • Jethro Tull announces 50th anniversary UK tour / Planet Rock
    Posted At: August 14, 2017 12:00 AM

    Half a century after Jethro Tull played their first ever show at Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London, Ian Anderson and co. ( Jethro Tull ) will play shows in Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Cambridge and London in April 2018. The anniversary concerts will boast a career-spanning set list focusing on the earlier formative period through to the "heavy hitters" of the Tu...
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  • Ian Anderson set to close Musikfest, Q&A's with Allentown Morning Call
    Posted At: August 11, 2017 12:00 AM

    When it comes to carrying on the music of early British prog-rock band Jethro Tull, lead singer Ian Anderson is arguably the most qualified. Yet when Anderson takes the stage at Musikfest's closing night on Sunday Aug.13, it will be not as Jethro Tull, but as "Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson" - even though he'll play flute, acoustic guitar and sing Jethro Tull's hits, such as "Living in the Past," "Thic...
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  • Ian Anderson on the state of Jethro Tull / Bob FM
    Posted At: August 11, 2017 12:00 AM

    Happy 70th birthday today (August 10) to Ian Anderson, the co-founder and remaining frontman for Jethro Tull. Anderson was born in Scotland and began as a guitar player, subsequently switching to flute because he felt he would never be "as good as Eric Clapton." He formed Jethro Tull during 1967 in London and has shepherded the group through 22 studio albums and some 20 members. Anderson has also release...
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  • Ian Anderson is 70 TODAY! and never too old to rock / DailyO
    Posted At: August 10, 2017 12:00 AM

    As the lights dimmed, a hush descended on the audience in the cavernous multi-tiered hall. The musicians filed in one by one and took their positions on the stage. And then the familiar opening riff of the acoustic guitar began and the man playing it entered the stage, the spotlight following him. The crowd went into raptures. He began: "Really don't mind if you sit this one out, my word's but a ...
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  • Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson set for NYC's Beacon Theatre / BLOUINARTINFO
    Posted At: August 9, 2017 12:00 AM

    The Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson music tour comes to Beacon theatre this November after his performance at Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey. The prime member of Jethro Tull, Anderson besides being a vocalist can play several other musical instruments, including keyboards, bass guitar, bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles. In the year 1983, he released his first solo a...
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  • Jethro Tull set for Christmas concert at Peterborough Cathedral / Peterborough Telegraph
    Posted At: August 8, 2017 12:00 AM

    Ian Anderson is famed as the man who brought the flute to rock music and has a large and enthusiastic fan base. He maintains a busy international touring schedule, which in recent years has concluded in December with a short series of Christmas concerts in cathedrals. Thanks to the musician's generosity, the proceeds of these concerts go entirely to the cathedrals concerned. Ian is a self-professed non-b...
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  • Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson headlines final night of Bethlehem - Musikfest / Delaware County Daily Times
    Posted At: August 5, 2017 12:00 AM

    In 1968 it seemed like a good idea to name the newly-formed band after 18th century English agriculturalist Jethro Tull. However, said singer/songwriter/flutist/guitarist/band leader Ian Anderson, nearly 50 years later, there's still always someone that mistakenly refers to him as "Jethro." It triggers "a mix of embarrassment and steam coming out of my ears," said Anderson, who presents "JETHRO TULL by I...
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  • Jethro Tull - The String Quartets makes Sun Herald 'best reviews' for the first half 2017
    Posted At: August 4, 2017 12:00 AM

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} This year has brought a lot of older music, either reissued or issued with new tweaks. However, enough new releases were out by mid-June to merit a list for the first six months of 2017. All of the ones included here received four stars or above when they were orig...
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  • 'Songs from the Wood,' 40th edition gets the 'Jethro Tull treatment' / HUFFPOST
    Posted At: July 1, 2017 12:00 AM

    Jethro Tull's tenth album, "Songs from the Wood," gets what's become the Jethro Tull treatment. What that has come to mean is a first rate remix of the cd by Steve Wilson, plus three cds of outtakes, live performances, q 5:1 remix, a live DVD and a 96 page booklet and some really classy packaging. The latter has first rate sound quality for a non-blu-ray release. It's from the Capital Center, L...
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  • Ian Anderson talks climate change, cats, and The String Quartets with Newsweek
    Posted At: June 4, 2017 12:00 AM

    Climate change is on a lot of people's minds these days, especially after President Donald Trump said he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement. Views of the situation are even coming from the world of progressive rock. One who is weighing in is Ian Anderson, the frontman and flautist of Jethro Tull, and that's not surprising, considering Tull over the years has recorded a bunch o...
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  • Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson at Red Rocks was grand and inspiring / axs
    Posted At: May 31, 2017 12:00 AM

    Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson arrived at Red Rocks Amphitheater on Friday, May 28. It was a chilly spring night in Colorado, but it didn't take long for Ian Anderson and company to warm things up. The concert was nothing short of grand and inspiring.  Backed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Ian Anderson and company provided their Rocky Mountain fans an experience that was steeped in musical his...
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  • Ian Anderson and the Colorado Symphony take on Jethro Tull at Red Rocks / Colorado Springs Independent
    Posted At: May 24, 2017 12:00 AM

    It didn't take long for Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson to abandon the jazz and blues elements that characterized his band's 1968 debut album This Was. By the release of 1971's Aqualung, the group had shifted to the European-folk-tinged progressive rock that carried them through more than three dozen albums to follow. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {marg...
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  • Jethro Tull - The String Quartets / KUCI review
    Posted At: May 20, 2017 12:00 AM

    New in the KUCI Classical Library The Carducci Quartet    -  Jethro Tull:The String Quartets   - (Released by Ian Anderson)  Ian Anderson and the Carducci Quartet have gone meta. Anderson took English folk melodies and turned them into rock classics. Now, under his direction, these rock songs have been re-imagined as classical pieces that hearken back to their folk origins.&n...
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  • Ian Anderson speaks with RAF - St. Louis about The String Quartets
    Posted At: April 28, 2017 12:00 AM

    Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet recently released - Jethro Tull: The String Quartets. Anderson commented: "I felt that there were some songs rather special to me which featured the string quartet such as "A Christmas Song," "Reasons For Waiting" and "Wond'ring Aloud." These were my first experiences of working with a quartet. John [O'Hara] came up with a few suggestions of his own...
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  • Win tix to Jethro Tull with The Colorado Symphony at Red Rocks / 99.5 - The Mountain
    Posted At: April 28, 2017 12:00 AM

    Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet recently released - Jethro Tull: The String Quartets. Anderson commented: "I felt that there were some songs rather special to me which featured the string quartet such as "A Christmas Song," "Reasons For Waiting" and "Wond'ring Aloud." These were my first experiences of working with a quartet. John [O'Hara] came up with a few suggestions of his own which pre...
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  • Jethro Tull - The String Quartets is daring and engrossing / relix review
    Posted At: April 14, 2017 12:00 AM

    Throughout the 1970s prime of progressive rock, numerous bands took a "symphonic" approach, piling instruments into ornate soundscapes. But Jethro Tull earned that label more literally: Aided by orchestral arranger Dee Palmer, mastermind Ian Anderson composed masterpiece LPs like 1971's Aqualung and the following year's Thick as a Brick with space for legitimate string sections. On 19...
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  • Ian Anderson reveals the truth about prog / New Zealand Herald
    Posted At: April 13, 2017 12:00 AM

    It's a surprising revelation. Since the late 60s Anderson has led the prog rock behemoths Jethro Tull. As a musical genre prog is notorious for its complexity. It's full of shifting time signatures, exploratory sonic journeys and, lets face it, a high constitution for pomp. It also demands nothing less than technical musical virtuosity. As a band Jethro Tull is most famous for blending their hard...
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  • Jethro Tull's 'Locomotive Breath' featured on Fargo season 2 / TVOvermind
    Posted At: April 7, 2017 12:00 AM

    I've always said that any movie can be made 100 times better with the right music.  Some movies there's simply no hope for but there are other movies that are made infinitely better by the correct usage of music.  The same goes for television shows.  Imagine how Shawshank Redemption would have been had Thomas Newman not scored that movie?  Think about how different it would have felt....
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  • Jethro Tull - The String Quartets all over US & UK billboard charts / Grateful Web
    Posted At: April 6, 2017 12:00 AM

    This week Ian Anderson reached the number one position again in the Billboard Classical Album charts with his new collaboration with the Carducci String Quartet, JETHRO TULL: THE STRING QUARTETS. Previously, his album DIVINITIES topped the Billboard Classical charts in 1995. In 1973 A Passion Play and, before that, 1972's THICK AS A BRICK both hit number one in the Billboard Album charts. Those are numbe...
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  • Ian Anderson speaks with WMBR: Boston about Jethro Tull - The String Quartets
    Posted At: April 5, 2017 12:00 AM

    Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet have just released - Jethro Tull: The String Quartets Says Anderson: "I felt that there were some songs rather special to me which featured the string quartet such as "A Christmas Song," "Reasons For Waiting" and "Wond'ring Aloud." These were my first experiences of working with a quartet. John O'Hara came up with a few suggestions of his own which ...
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  • 'Stand up' versions from Ian Anderson on The String Quartets / Classical Purdue
    Posted At: April 5, 2017 12:00 AM

    It's a new way for chamber music fans, and for prog rock fans to unite: a 'stand up' new release from Jethro Tull leader Ian Anderson. Jethro Tull - String Quartets is a collaboration with the Carducci String Quartet, Anderson, and John O'Hara. While Anderson has worked in the classical realm with A Classic Case, and An Orchestral Jethro Tull before, this March 2017 recording is...
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  • Jethro Tull: The String Quartets debuts #1 on billboard - Classical Albums Chart
    Posted At: April 4, 2017 12:00 AM

    p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} Ian Anderson and The Carducci Quartet have just released - Jethro Tull: The String Quartets. Ian Anderson will return to the United States this May, June, August, and November to present multi-media JETHRO TULL, and will be accompanied by Tull members David Goodier (bass), John O'Hara (keyboards), Florian Op...
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