Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 3497
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC
Chris Thile, the Mandolin, and Bach
Monday evening, the Public Broadcasting program "PBS News Hour" ended with a segment on Chris Thile, the super-accomplished mandolin player who started playing with the band Nickel Creek, continued in bluegrass, cut an album with Yo Yo Ma called "Goat Rodeo Sessions" that won a grammy award, was awarded a MacArthur Genius award in 2012, and is coming out with an album playing Bach on the Mandolin. The man knows no barriers in music.
When the MacArthur Foundation awarded Thile a "genius grant" in 2012, the organization cited his creation of a "distinctly American canon for the mandolin and a new musical aesthetic for performers and audiences alike." On the PBS News Hour Thile called Bach "the greatest musician who ever lived." Chris Thile is a musical genius. Can't wait to listen to his Bach album.
Cheers,
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
RE: Chris Thile, the Mandolin, and Bach (in reply to BarkellWH)
quote:
ORIGINAL: BarkellWH
On the PBS News Hour Thile called Bach "the greatest musician who ever lived." Chris Thile is a musical genius. Can't wait to listen to his Bach album.
Cheers,
Bill
He has already recorded a fair bit of Bach with the equally talented accomplished and more experienced Mike Marshall.
Mike has being doing this kind of thing for years but never seemed to get the kind of PR machine behind him to which 'apparently' pop musicians have access.
Translation of Bach violin sonatas to mandolin requires no change in LH fingering as the tuning is identical. Not really the groundbreaking work that is being claimed.
Vivaldi wrote a few mandolin concerti, so nothing new there either.
Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck were recording and performing Bach in the eighties.
Anyway I don't mean to take anything away from Thile, just think the credit should be spread around a little more evenly. Marketing machines sell us a narrative that is not really illustrative of historical fact.
Here is Mike Marshall in a great jam with Darol Anger.
Chaconne on mandolin, and this guys definately got a stronger right hand than Thile, he was born in 1912 apparently (and Malmsteen invented sweep picking )
RE: Chris Thile, the Mandolin, and Bach (in reply to Pablito)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Pablito
Chris Thile is such a pleasure to listen to. If flamenco didn't exist, bluegrass would be my thing. I'm just spread too thin as it is haha.
Would love to hear Thile and Victor Wooten do a thing
You know I would definitely give Thile and Wooten a listen.
I guess I might have come across as mean spirited earlier, sorry Bill. But I will definitely be listening to the Bach album and am in all honesty pretty confidant that I will enjoy it.
Anyway here is a site with about five Thile concerts for fans.
Printable Version
) 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread