What happens when a bluegrass banjo player makes a documentary film about a legendary 18th century composer?

The result with Michael Lawrence is Bach and Friends, due for DVD release early in 2010. The film looks at the timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach through the eyes of 21st century musicians in a variety of genres. Lawrence has made a dozen or more documentaries, many focused on musical topics and personalities.

Mike told us that this Bach film began as a small project, but starting with his connections in the bluegrass world, has grown to include interviews and performances from some of the biggest names in contemporary music. Bach and Friends features several names familiar to bluegrass fans (Chris Thile, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer), along with jazz singer Bobby McFerrin and classical notables Joshua Bell, Sharon Isbin, Glenn Gould and The Emerson String Quartet.

“The whole idea of the movie is to bring young people – and people who aren’t familiar with Bach – to learn more about him. The project started with just an idea and my savings, and I had no idea there would be so many luminaries in the movie.

I spent about a year producing from the second floor of my house, and I just started contacting people, and they said yes.”

Lawrence runs a one-man operation (Michael Lawrence Films) and came to classical music from a bluegrass background. He played banjo as a young man, and with no options to study banjo in college such as there are today, he gravitated to guitar. He was a member of the very first graduating class at The Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Aaron Shearer, and performed as a classical guitarist.

Film scoring and original music for films was Michael’s introduction to the world of the cinema. He provided music for more than a dozen projects, most notably The Other Americans, which won numerous Emmy Awards in 1969. Lawrence soon found his place behind the camera, and as writer, producer or director, has more than 20 films to his credit, aired on PBS, HBO and CNN.

After a career close to classical music, it was his bluegrass roots that got the Bach Project off the ground.

“Béla was the first big name person who came aboard, which led to Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. I knew of Chris from Nickel Creek, but had no idea he played Bach.”

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Chris Thile will be debuting his new Mandolin Concerto with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver this weekend. The piece, in three movements, was commissioned by the Colorado Symphony (and six other orchestras) for mandolin and orchestra. It is scored for mandolin and pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns, plus timpani, two percussionists, piano and strings.

The Concerto will be featured starting tonight (9/17), with additional shows this weekend (9/18-20) at the Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. The program will also include performances of Aaron Copland’s Suite from Billy The Kid, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and William Hill’s Four Movements Musical. Quite an evening of modern music.

Chris was interviewed yesterday at violinist.com about his new music…

“The piece is really all about me stretching myself, and thus the name, Ad astra per alas porci, which is Latin for ‘To the stars on the wings of a pig,’” Thile said. “It was Steinbeck’s personal motto, and he would always accompany it by saying, ‘I am earthbound, but aspiring.’ I love that. If that doesn’t describe the human condition, I don’t know what does. That’s what being a musician is all about to me, continually reaching out and trying to grasp things that are really sort of beyond me. Every now and then you get a little piece of it, and it just feels so good, it propels you forward, and you can grasp a little bit more the next time.”

I wondered if the concerto would sound like Bluegrass.

“No, I wouldn’t think,” Thile said. “Then again, it could strike someone who doesn’t have much in the way of Bluegrass background as having some of that flavor to it.”

“I’m just a bad judge of that kind of thing, because it all sounds the same to me, really, as far as the way I’m evaluating music at this point,” Thile said. “An A chord is an A chord, whether it’s Bluegrass or whether through some crazy pattern, Berg hits an A chord, it’s still an A chord. It’s the same thing, there’s no difference. The differences are all purely aesthetic, not structural. So I’m kind of a bad person to ask about that.”

You can read the full interview at violinist.com.

The Colorado Symphony program describes the genesis of Thile’s Concerto thusly:

The commission for the Mandolin Concerto arose because Chris Thile especially wanted to play a work with a symphony orchestra. This work combines the traditions of the concerto created by a virtuoso performer for his own use, and that of the composer who takes musical elements traditionally regarded as coming from “outside” sources, especially folk or traditional music. Over the years Chris Thile has not only absorbed bluegrass music and a large repertory of classical music as well, but he has been open to an incredibly wide range of musical styles as well and has made use of them in his concerto. Rather than fusing two types of music into a “stew” that contains “lumps” of the original styles mixed together, he aims to bring together a wider range of musical ideas‚Äî”of completely ambiguous origin,” he says‚Äîmore fully assimilated, so that the result is more of a “soup” than a stew.

The Mandolin Concerto is also scheduled for the following performances:

• Oregon Symphony – September 26, 2009
• Alabama Symphony – October 29, 2009
• Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – January 23-24, 2010
• Winston-Salem Symphony – March 13, 14, 16, 2010
• Delaware Symphony – March 19-20, 2010
• Portland Symphony – March 28, 2010

How To Grow A Band is the title of a new film, currently in production, that chronicles the life and times of Punch Brothers.

It follows Chris Thile and his merry band (Chris Eldridge on guitar, Noam Pikelny on band, Gabe Witcher on fiddle, and Greg Garrison and Paul Kowert on bass) during their first tour as Punch Brothers, where they debuted Thile’s ambitious four movement piece, The Blind Leaving The Blind. It begins with the band’s appearance at a folk festival in Scotland, and follows them over two years and 25 cities.

Director Mark Meatto tells us that the film is set for a 2010 release, and that he will tell us all about it when that time draws near.

Here’s the trailer (language warning)…

http://media.libsyn.com/media/thegrasscast/punch_trailer.flvMeatto and Michel Bohlman produced, with financial assistance from Documentary Educational Resources. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to this film project, you can do so online.

In additional Chris Thile news, Mandolin Cafe has a piece up about live performances of his new mandolin concerto in three movements, Mandolin Concerto (Ad astra per alas porci). The Latin translates to “To the stars on the wings of a pig,” a John Steinbeck reference – in keeping with Thile’s literary naming conventions. Punch Brothers was named for a Mark Twain short story (Punch, Brothers, Punch) from 1876.

This innovative and virtuosic new work will be performed by Thile with seven American orchestras: The Colorado Symphony (September 17, 19, and 20, 2009; with Jeffrey Kahane), the Oregon Symphony (September 26, 2009; with Carlos Kalmar), the Alabama Symphony (October 29, 2009; with Justin Brown), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (January 23 and 24, 2010; again with Jeffrey Kahane), the Winston-Salem Symphony (March 13, 14, and 16, 2010; with Robert Moody); the Delaware Symphony (March 19 and 20, 2010; with David Amado);and the Portland Symphony (March 28, 2010; with Scott Terrell). This diversity highlights Thile’s wide-reaching appeal.

Read the full piece at Mandolin Cafe.

Mike Marshall has prepared a book of transcriptions from his 2003 CD Into The Cauldron, a set of stunning duets with fellow mando-wizard Chris Thile. It contains transcriptions from 9 of 11 tracks on the CD, including the main melody, harmony parts where applicable and a few of the solos taken during these tunes.

Mike thinks that folks will be able to learn a thing or two from these pieces, transcribed for the book by Matt Flinner.

“I just hope folks get as much joy from playing these tunes as we did.

Keep in mind that we did 95% of these arrangements without written music, so it’s a little strange for me to see it in written form. But I hope that these pages will help fill in some gaps for people if they just can’t seem to transcribe it off the CD by ear.

Believe me….  I understand.”

The book has just been published, and will be available within a few days from Elderly Instruments, who will be the sole distributor.