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.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Though he expects that Bach and Friends will eventually be broadcast on television, the first step is producing a 2 hour documentary on DVD. Lawrence said that the DVD is due for release in January 2010 – a 2 DVD set to include the documentary on one disc, and all of the musical performances strung back-to-back on the other.

Here’s a look at Béla’s contribution…

Click here to view the embedded video.

More video samples can be found on Lawrence’s web site.

Michael said that while his professional career now revolves around film and classical music, he still keeps up his bluegrass chops.

“I play bluegrass about once a month at a jam here in Baltimore – so I’m usually a little rusty, but it’s always fun.”

The music of JS Bach has had appeal to banjo and mandolin players for some time, with its focus on linear melodies that can be adapted well to these instruments. Hearing Bach perfomed on the harpsichord (for which much of it was written) really brings the banjo to mind, and perhaps this new film will spur a study of this lovely music by younger string players with a bluegrass bent.

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

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)…

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 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.

This coming Sunday, July 19, Thile will perform as a soloist with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, in Interlochen, Michigan. They will be performing a concerto he composed, for mandolin but with complete orchestration.

Thile views this performance more as a preview rather than a premier, as he intends to modify the composition based on his assessment of this weekend’s performance. The piece will be officially premiered this September by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

His concerto is in three movements, but fans of Thile’s improvisational efforts have no need to worry. The piece contains a improvised mandolin cadenza near the end.

“I don’t know whether I have any business writing for orchestra. I hope I do, because I love it.”

The Interlochen performance will be the first time he’ll hear the piece played by an orchestra, and the first time many in the audience will hear him play anything other than bluegrass.

“It could sound atonal to someone who knows me through Nickel Creek,” he said. “It’s ridiculously more adventurous than that.”

The full story, along with ticket information, can be found here.

Here’s a video of Chris talking about his interest in classical music.

It is a set of ten songs and tunes featuring Bryan in the studio with many of the artists with whom he has performed in recent years. Punch Brothers make an appearance (sans regular guitarist Chris Eldridge) along with Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Hot Rize, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and several other notables. The intention was to capture the music live in the studio, with minimal overdubs or tweaking.

The CD’s vibe is nicely captured by Nate Chinen in a mini-review in the New York Times’ Playlist column on July 8:

The contemporary bluegrass style upheld by the flat-pick guitarist Bryan Sutton has a lot to do with high-polish whimsicality. There’s no room for raggedness on his crisp new album, “Almost Live” (Sugar Hill), but as the title suggests, looseness is a priority.

You should be able to find Almost Live for sale wherever you like to purchase bluegrass CDs, or in iTunes where you can hear audio samples as well.

It looks like this one may do well, as it is the #1 selling bluegrass CD at Amazon.com today.

But it also means that his many admirers have precious little opportunity to hear him out front, performing his own music.

Sugar Hill has another of those rare glimpses into Sutton as a spotlight artist with a new CD, Almost Live, due for release on July 14. The title comes from the concept for the album – to get together in the studio with the several groups with whom Bryan has toured in recent years, and capture the informal and sometimes extemporaneous character of a live show.

These include the occasional Hot Rize reunions, Punch Brothers, and Béla Fleck (and his Acoustic Planet band). Each is featured on at least one track, along with a trio of duets with Fleck, Russ Barrenberg and Chris Thile. Not too shabby, eh?

As always, Sutton’s tone is gorgeous – large and round – and while it is clearly his album, the tunes (and songs) dictate the arrangements. In other words, it’s not a “guitar album.” Most of the materials falls squarely within the bluegrass/newgrass/Americana category, with one track that showcases Bryan’s more recent fascination with gypsy swing music.

Sutton wrote the bulk of the tunes, with a Norman Blake classic (Church Street Blues with Hot Rize) and a Delmore Brothers chestnut (Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar with Thile) included for a bit of vocal relief. Choosing standouts is a daunting chore given the high caliber of music and musicianship throughout, but here are a few that grabbed my attention.

Big Island Hornpipe is a co-write with Thile which Bryan says the two of them finished while he was touring with Chris’ How To Grow A Band. Sutton filled in with them on shows when their ultimate guitarist Chris Eldridge was still working with The Infamous Stringdusters. It’s quite a romp!

Rye Straw Suite finds Sutton in duet with B?©la Fleck, with whom he wrote the tune.

Loretta’s Waltz is a lovely melody which Bryan wrote and named for his wife. The execution, with Dennis Crouch on bass, Aubrie Haynie on fiddle and Jeff Taylor on accordion, is restrained and quite powerful.

Be on the lookout for Almost Live folks – if you care about virtuosic instrumental acoustic music, that is. And why wouldn’t you?

If you’re not there, but you’d like to know what’s going on. Or, if you are there, but you’d like to know what’s going on backstage, here’s your chance.

Our pal Wichita Rutherford is there all week and hanging out back stage with Doc and the other stars. He’s going to give us all a window into what’s happening, by Twittering his experiences. He tells me he plans to let us know who’s backstage and what they’re doing, what they’re eating, and who they’re talking to. Apparently there will be no privacy this year at Merlefest! Wichita will also be catching a few parking lot jams and letting us know what’s happening there.

Wichita tells me there may even be a friendly slap fight match or two. He’s challenged Tim Stafford, Terry Eldrige and Jerry Douglas among others. Of course, if Chris Thile shows up…

If Chris Thile shows there will be an all out slap fight brawl; a loser leaves MerleFest cage match, if you will.

I’m sure Wichita will let us know all the details if it happens. Be careful buddy!

In addition to just Tweeting the events as they happen, Wichita will also be posting photos on his Twitter page.

If you want to follow Wichita’s Tweets, then just go to Twitter.com, you’ll need an account, and search for WichitaR or Wichita Rutherford, and enjoy!

We posted a video of them performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major a month ago, and now there is video of them tackling Mozart’s Spring Quartet with banjo, mandolin, fiddle and guitar.

Serious students of classical music can decide for themselves how successfully Punch Brothers interpret Mozart’s music, but we at The Bluegrass Blog salute them for taking risks with their music, and pushing themselves – and the instruments they play – into places where they aren’t familiar.

Hat’s off to Thile and his merry band!

First off, video from their 2/9 appearance on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour has been made available online. This program was wholly dedicated to Chris Thile’s ambitious composition, The Blind Leaving The Blind, which serves as the primary focus of the band’s debut release, Punch. It is written in four movements, combining lengthy intricate instrumental sections with a song-like story that weaves through the nearly 40 minute piece.

You can watch them perform all four movements online in Windows Media Video. Folks who found this piece a bit daunting on the CD may find that seeing them play it live makes the music much more accessible. I’ve seen them do this piece live and it strikes me as a breakthrough accomplishment on several levels.

When you have time for the whole thing, treat yourself to this video – and try to approach it without preconceptions.

The “fun guys” part can be found in two posts on the Punch Brothers blog.

On 2/4, fiddler Gabe Witcher (aka The Judge) brought forth a 2008 Punch Brothers year in photos, with dozens of pictures of their life on the road – complete with a running commentary. The vibe is silliness, showing the band acting out and behaving oddly for the camera, plus a visit to the friendly confines for a Cub game during a day off in Chicago.

Here are a few samples…

        

Then late last week, new bassist Paul Kowert introduced himself to readers of the band blog with an overview of life on the road with the Brothers, which he closes as follows:

Band idiocy is central to our lives, especially on the road. Here are some of the ways we entertain ourselves:

–Pull pranks on each other, like stealing Holt’s wallet and phone (texting each other embarrassing messages from his phone), tying each other’s instruments to chairs and tables, unbeknownst to the owner. Stealing each other’s shoes.
Nota bene: most of these pranks are instigated by Pickles and directed at Holt.

–Reference band member lore. Add details to lore, and expand upon each other’s nicknames.
Nota bene: most of this is instigated by Pickles and directed at Holt.

–Talk about women.

–Play with the iFart application on Pickles’ iPhone.

–Fight off inconsolable sadness.

Read the whole thing online.

This piece, officially titled Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048, was composed in 1721 for three violins, three violas, three cellos, bass and harpsichord. It was arranged for Punch Brothers by violinist Rob Moose, who performs the 3rd movement with the guys in this hand held video posted on YouTube.

Banjoist Noam Pikelny implys that it isn’t a simple thing to take the banjo out of bluegrass..

“It was my first time playing any Bach in front of people, and I successfully resisted the primal urge to end the movement with a behind the bridge backwards rake a la  Flop Eared Mule.”

Punch Brothers consists of Chris Thile on mandolin, Pikelny on banjo, Gabe Wichter on fiddle, Chris Eldridge on guitar and Paul Cowert on bass.

Thile talks about his impressions of various musical styles while growing up as a child prodigy [my term], how he composes (individually and with collaborators), and his experiences with Nickel Creek, Edgar Meyer, and his current Punch Brothers band mates.

At one point he even touches on the reasons why many of his early fans have had trouble following him on all of his musical adventures.

FJO: In one of Monroe’s early line-ups, before Earl Scruggs joined the group, there was even an accordion in the band for a while.

CT: Yeah. And they had a snare drum at the Opry a couple of times. It’s a matter of taste and the way you exercise that taste. And some people choose, I guess in the literal sense of it, not to exercise their taste, and not to develop it. “I like this right here, and I’d prefer for it not to change at all. This is what I like, and I’m not really interested in ever learning to like other things.” It gets frustrating when people get frustrated with you for not playing by those rules.

But I understand. Every now and then, I’ll get locked into the way musicians that I love sound. And they might put out a record that no longer fulfills that place that I’ve allocated to them. And temporarily‚Äîbefore I come to my senses and go, “Oh wait, that’s what I’m always doing”‚ÄîI go, “Wow, I just want them to do that thing they did [before]. Oh, it’s so nice. Why are they doing this other thing?” But then I remember it’s because things change.

It is a lengthy and detailed interview, and the video includes clips of Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers and Chris with Edgar Meyer. Even casual fans of this mandolin giant will find it of interest, while serious students of his music will be fully engrossed – as in this description of the structure of Punch Bowl, the odd and haunting opening track from Punch.

FJO: Your tune for “Punch Bowl” is polytonal; it’s probably even more harmonically out there than The Blind Leaving the Blind.

CT: It is in a way. Especially because it sets you up to want something. The structure of Blind sets you up to be less reliant on tonality, even though Blind is totally a tonal piece. There’s no doubt about it. Maybe to a bluegrass fan it sounds real funny. I think bluegrass fans think it has more to do with Schoenberg than it does with Bill Monroe, which is so not the case. But, whatever; it’s fine. Tonality is in the ear of the beholder, I guess. But “Punch Bowl” is a song. I mean, it’s, you know, 3 minutes and 30 seconds or something like that. And it starts with a lick that gives you a hint that you’re going to have two [different] thirds throughout and, and that they will be used sort of interchangeably and simultaneously. But the texture indicates that you would be getting some pretty standard bluegrass tonality. And so when you don’t, I think it’s all the more jarring. And then there’s the subject matter. The point was to somehow represent musically the danger of party scenarios, especially if one maybe has no business being in kind of a reckless party scenario based on circumstances.

Find the entire interview at newmusicbox.com.

Punch is certainly high on my list of 2008 releases, one to which I find myself returning again and again. It is fascinating to hear Thile among his musical peers, on material created especially for this ensemble.

You can hear audio samples from Punch on the band’s MySpace page, or in iTunes.

Cast a vote at NPR.com (quick/free registration required).

There are live versions of Punch Bowl and the first movement of The Blind Leaving The Blind, both tracks from the band’s current CD, Punch. They also cut a version of Wilco’s Poor Places which they have been doing in their live show.

All three are available at Daytrotter for either online streaming or free download.

First up at 10:15 a.m., Jeanette Williams will join Carol Beaugard on WFDU to talk about her new CD, Thank You For Caring, and her participation in the third release from the Daughters Of Bluegrass, Bluegrass Bouquet, a celebration of female bluegrass artists and musicians. Music from these recordings will be featured as well.

Then at 11:00 a.m., Carol will welcome the ear-shattering instrumental duo Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile into the WFDU studio. The two have been out in support of their CD, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile, a CD/DVD combo project of mandolin/bass duets, ahead of their final show at Carnegie Hall next week.

Carol is a huge Thile fan so she’s sure to talk about his meteoric career at length, in addition to his current work with Meyer. Expect lots of music early in the show and in the 11:00 hour from the Meyer/Thile album, plus Nickel Creek, the Punch Brothers and Chris’ various solo CDs.

Her show, Lonesome Pine RFD, is broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to noon (EDT) on 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

Also at 11:00 a.m., there will be live music over at WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.

Claire Lynch will be in the studio with host Lee Michael Demsey to spread the word about her show at The Birchmere Friday night. Guitarist Jim Hurst and bass player Mark Schatz will accompany Claire for an impromptu set in WAMU’s Studio 3. They will also talk about what The Claire Lynch Band is up to for the rest of 2008 and beyond, and whatever else Lee Michael might come up with.

You can catch their 24/7 online bluegrass feed at www.bluegrasscountry.org.

All in all, a good morning to tune in online.

Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile features both an audio CD with 12 new compositions the duo wrote for this project, and a 50 minute DVD with rehearsals, performances and behind-the-scenes conversations. All the tunes are performed as duets on mandolin and upright bass.

Video in the Windows Media format can be found on the Woodsongs site.

Perhaps The Bluegrass Intelligencer has stumbled onto the reason for Thile’s shutout this year in a piece entitled Punch Brothers Compose Ambitious New Piece.

Punch Brothers, hot young pioneers of through-composed music for bluegrass instruments, have begun work on their most ambitious piece so far.

The band, which features Chris Thile on mandolin and vocals, will build upon the vast achievements of its previous 40-minute suite, "The Blind Leaving the Blind,” this time employing even more advanced compositional tools towards a singular objective: to estrange every single traditional bluegrass enthusiast without exception.

Later in this article, the uncredited author explores the techniques in advanced alienation which the group has refined.

According to Noam Pikelny, Punch Brothers’ banjo player, the group has been tirelessly refining its new concepts and execution. Pikelny, a former engineering student, has established an advanced theoretical basis for Punch Brothers’ effort to alienate all bluegrassers, coining the phrase "Radical Acute Conceptual Metamorphosis (RACM)."

Briefly, RACM is a technique for quickly and unexpectedly shifting between bluegrass and various mutually exclusive genres in order to minimize traditionalists’ enjoyment.

Hmmm….  They could be on to something here.

The CD includes 12 new instrumental compositions the two have c0-written, performed with Thile on mandolin and Meyer on bass.

The companion DVD features 50 minute’s worth of live performances, rehearsals and conversation between these two stellar virtuosos, who both separately and together have been responsible for some dramatic rethinking about the capabilities of their respective instruments.

The release date is September 23, and pre-ordering is enabled on the Nonesuch web site, where you can also hear the audio for one full track.

The contest was in honor of the 100th anniversary of the venerable Take Me Out To The Ballgame, written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilze in 1908. Several popular musical acts were invited to submit their interpretations of the song, and though Punch Brothers made it into the final three, they were unable to overcome the 9th inning rally by Gretchen Wilson fans in the online balloting.

Unfortunately, there is controversy brewing as Punch Brothers banjoist Noam Pikelny has suggested that a “swift boat” attack had been launched against them on the ESPN web site.

As he posted recently on the Punch Brothers site…

There has been a lot of buzz in inside circles that this campaign might go negative. The first round victory of Punch Brothers, the undisputed underdogs, with their primitive acoustic instruments and piecemeal wardrobes, sent shockwaves across the nation. People’s fears of negative smear attacks were unfortunately realized the morning of Tuesday July 7.

The first “Swiftboat” Style attack on Punch Brothers first surfaced on the ESPN.com messageboard:

“I remember the first time I heard about this… I was watching baseball tonight and the Punch Brothers came on. I remember thinking “man, who hired these circus freaks”… No offense too Punch Brothers fans, but do you really think you picked the right band????????? It isn’t that hard to do what they did. I mean I could probably pull some people off the street (”Hey homeless guys, do you have instruments, and also, do you know the lyrics to `Take Me Out To The Ballgame’?”) and no one would know the difference (again, no offense). ” -hockeyplyr99

As of 3:30 PM, EST, neither the Wilson or Ozomatli campaign have denounced the smear.

Major news outlets are scrambling trying to come up with any ties between the Punch Brothers and “Circus Freaks.” An image of Punch Brothers banjoist, Noam Pikelny, has surfaced online where he is seen performing in a Chicken Suit.

Pikelny immediately issued a statement: “I will not apologize for my misspent youth. I also will not allow Carnies or Circus Freaks to become the new scapegoat of American Society. I believe Americans will see right through these vicious smear tactics, and the good name of Punch Brothers will be restored.”

Folks, this is not over.

You can still vote for their bluegrass version of the song in this final round (even if you voted previously). The winner will be announced during the July 13th episode of Baseball Tonight.

The video of their performance is available on that page, but I’ve embedded it below as well.

Punch Brothers front man, Chris Thile, will be online this afternoon with the ESPN SportsNation folks for a live chat at 12:30 PM EST. You can submit questions ahead of time , or join the chat live during your lunch break today.