Mike Marshall
Mike Marshall is one of the best mandolin players in the USA today. For more than 30 years Mike has played everything possible on the mandolin, and also on the mandocello – bluegrass, dawg, jazz, classical and brazilian choro.
In the early 80s he played together with the David Grisman Quintet. For the leading mandolin journal of that time – the Mandolin World News – he wrote the beginners page.
With the Modern Mandolin Quartet he played classical music from the nutcracker suite to Gershwin’s West Side Story.
During the last years he has learned everything about the brazilian choro and has invited the leading choro players like Hamilton de Holanda and Dudu Maia to the United States.
With this broad background it is no surprisde to find Mike Marshall now regularly together in duo concerts with German mandolin professor Caterina Lichtenberg teaching at the music university Köln/Wuppertal
Mike was a teacher at the first European Mandolin Acadamy held in Trossingen this year, together with Don Stiernberg, Caterina Lichtenberg and Mirko Schrader.
Interview with Mike Marshall with some interesting informations: digitalinterviews
Chris Thile
Chris Thile was very successful with the Nickel Creek. He plays is a fantastic mandolin player and is – like Mike Marshall – very versatile. He is certainly an idol for many young mandolin players in the USA and around the world. He plays the mandolin very creatively and has developed his own style and sound.
Woodsongs
Every week in an old theater in Lexington, Kentucky, there is a one hour concert organized by Michael Jonathan – the Woodsong’s Radio Hour. Those concerts are available for download as audio or video files – a huge archive of excellent music.
Mike Marshall and Chris Thile played concert No. 287 – a concert that you should have seen and heard. Both are playing excellent. The program includes classical pieces like the Goldberg variations by J. S. Bach, standards like the Fishermans Hornpipe and many compositions by Mike Marshall and Chris Thile. The Radio Hours is just one hour, but after a short break it was continued with an after hour, a long program with many interesting pieces.
In the beginning of the concert Mike and Chris each played one solo piece. Mike began with Odeon by Ernesto Nazareth, the first piece in the playlist below.
To download the complete video or audio go to: Woodsongs Archive
If you do not want to download the complete video you can also find most of the pieces as youtube videos. However – the complete video contains also the interviews and the talk between the pieces which is also very interesting, and you learn a lot about Mike and Chris if you watch it.
I have collected the youtube videos in my following playlist:
Additional information
Website Mike Marshall: http://www.mikemarshall.net/
Website Chris Thile: http://www.punchbrothers.com/
Blog about Mike Marshall (German) / Interview: http://www.gitarrengurte.de/blog/?p=399
CD Tip (amazon partnerlink)