Mike Marshall (bluegrass musician)
Encyclopedia
Mike Marshall is an American
mandolin
player and multi-instrumentalist
who grew up in central Florida
and now lives in Oakland, California
. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music
since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including bluegrass
, classical
, jazz
and Brazilian music. In addition to several instruments within the mandolin family, Marshall also plays the guitar
and violin
.
Marshall has recorded and toured with other contemporary acoustic musicians such as David Grisman
, Tony Rice
, Mark O'Connor
, Stéphane Grappelli
, Darol Anger
, Barbara Higbie
, and Jerry Douglas
. His two recordings on the Sony Classical label: Uncommon Ritual
with banjo innovator Béla Fleck
and bassist Edgar Meyer
; and Short Trip Home
with violinist Joshua Bell
, mandolinist Sam Bush
and Meyer were both on the Billboard Classical Music charts.
Marshall and his longtime partner, Darol Anger, have released 6 albums as a duo on Compass
and Windham Hill Records
. Together they have also recorded with their experimental bluegrass group Psychograss
with guitarist David Grier
, banjo player Tony Trischka
and bassist Todd Phillips
.
From 1984 to 1990 Mike Marshall was part of the group Montreux
, named for the Montreux Jazz Festival
where they played a concert which was good enough to be released from Windham Hill, Live At Montreux - Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet. The group released two studio recordings, Sign Language and Let Them Say, before breaking up.
Marshall's strength in classical music led to his co-founding in 1986 of Modern Mandolin Quartet, a string quartet of mandolin family instruments. The group released four recordings for Windham Hill Records and in 1995, the Quartet made its Carnegie Hall
debut.
Mike has worked with Chris Thile
from the group Nickel Creek
. Their CD Into the Cauldron, released in 2003 on Sugar Hill Records, was listed in the top ten of Amazon.com
’s favorite recordings for 2003. The duo show their roots in Bluegrass music, but show their passion for Classical through to new acoustic music.
In addition to touring and recording regularly, Mike is also a partner in the music label, Adventure Music, which is dedicated to releasing music from Brazil
as well as Mike’s own projects. His latest releases include Serenata, a duet recording of with pianist Jovino Santos Neto featuring the compositions of Hermeto Pascoal
, and an album by his Brazilian group Choro Famoso. He is also the composer of the theme music "Peter Pan" for San Francisco public radio affiliate KQED
's talkshow, Forum with
Michael Krasny
.
Marshall is also a cook, and has been known to trade music lessons for cooking instruction with some of the San Francisco Bay area's
finest chefs. He is also a producer, based in his Oakland
Gatorland Studios.
He and his former wife, violinist Kaila Flexer, a Klezmer
musician, have one daughter.
Mike and current wife Caterina Lichtenberg have released an album together on Adventure Music.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
player and multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
who grew up in central Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and now lives in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. Marshall has been a part of New Acoustic Music
New Acoustic Music
New Acoustic Music is a music genre that blends influences from folk, bluegrass, jazz and world music and uses only acoustic instruments. Beginning in the 1970's it has been developed by artists such as Bela Fleck, Leo Kottke Tim Ware, Tony Rice, Mike Marshall, Darol Anger and others. *Neil V...
since the early 1980s. He has performed and recorded with many musicians in a variety of styles, including bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Brazilian music. In addition to several instruments within the mandolin family, Marshall also plays the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
.
Marshall has recorded and toured with other contemporary acoustic musicians such as David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
, Tony Rice
Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
, Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...
, Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
, Darol Anger
Darol Anger
-Career:Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed,...
, Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie
Barbara Higbie is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CD's including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second...
, and Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas
Jerry Douglas may refer to:*Jerry Douglas , actor, who was on The Young and the Restless for 25 years*Jerry Douglas, country/bluegrass musician*Jerry Douglas , director and writer of adult films such as, Score...
. His two recordings on the Sony Classical label: Uncommon Ritual
Uncommon Ritual
Uncommon Ritual is the second album released by Sony Classical of string trios, following Appalachia Waltz, with unusual instrumentation and influences from bluegrass and folk music to create an Americana-style of traditional classical music. Uncommon Ritual adds jazz, blues, and elements from...
with banjo innovator Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
and bassist Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer
Edgar Meyer is a prominent contemporary bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger...
; and Short Trip Home
Short Trip Home
Short Trip Home is an album of classical chamber music by a quartet unusual both for its membership and its instrumentation. Double bassist Edgar Meyer wrote the majority of the compositions recorded on the album for a quartet of violin, double bass, mandolin, and guitar...
with violinist Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell
Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...
, mandolinist Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...
and Meyer were both on the Billboard Classical Music charts.
Marshall and his longtime partner, Darol Anger, have released 6 albums as a duo on Compass
Compass Records
Compass Records is a Nashville-based independent record label founded in 1995 by musicians Garry West and Alison Brown. Currently home to nearly 100 folk, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz, and new acoustic artists, the label releases about 20 records a year...
and Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment specializing in Acoustic, New Age and Folk music. Originally founded in 1976 as an Independent record label by guitarist and carpenter William Ackerman and his then-wife Anne Robinson, Windham Hill was a successful and well-respected...
. Together they have also recorded with their experimental bluegrass group Psychograss
Psychograss
Psychograss is an American bluegrass band, consisting of fiddler Darol Anger, mandolinist Mike Marshall, banjoist Tony Trischka, bassist Todd Phillips, and guitarist David Grier. They have released three studio albums entitled Psychograss , Like Minds , and Now Hear This ....
with guitarist David Grier
David Grier
David Grier is an American acoustic guitarist. He is considered to be one of the premier flatpicking guitarists in the world. His unique phrasing and his ability to create multiple variations on a theme are hallmarks of his playing style...
, banjo player Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka
Tony Trischka is an American five-string banjo player.-Biography:Tony Trischka was born in Syracuse, New York, and graduated from Syracuse University with a B.A in Fine Arts, and was inspired to play the banjo in 1963, listening to the Kingston Trio's "Charlie and The MTA". Trischka was a...
and bassist Todd Phillips
Todd Phillips (musician)
Todd Phillips is an American double bassist. He is the bassist of choice for many of the most innovative, as well as traditional, acoustic instrumental and bluegrass recordings made since the mid-1970s...
.
From 1984 to 1990 Mike Marshall was part of the group Montreux
Montreux (band)
Montreux was the name of an American fusion band, specializing in the blend of jazz and bluegrass, with jam elements. The band was active from approximately 1982 until 1990 and recorded on Windham Hill Records...
, named for the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
where they played a concert which was good enough to be released from Windham Hill, Live At Montreux - Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet. The group released two studio recordings, Sign Language and Let Them Say, before breaking up.
Marshall's strength in classical music led to his co-founding in 1986 of Modern Mandolin Quartet, a string quartet of mandolin family instruments. The group released four recordings for Windham Hill Records and in 1995, the Quartet made its Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
debut.
Mike has worked with Chris Thile
Chris Thile
Christopher Scott Thile is an American musician, best known as the mandolinist and a singer for the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek. His current band is Punch Brothers whose most recent album is Antifogmatic...
from the group Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...
. Their CD Into the Cauldron, released in 2003 on Sugar Hill Records, was listed in the top ten of Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
’s favorite recordings for 2003. The duo show their roots in Bluegrass music, but show their passion for Classical through to new acoustic music.
In addition to touring and recording regularly, Mike is also a partner in the music label, Adventure Music, which is dedicated to releasing music from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
as well as Mike’s own projects. His latest releases include Serenata, a duet recording of with pianist Jovino Santos Neto featuring the compositions of Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
, and an album by his Brazilian group Choro Famoso. He is also the composer of the theme music "Peter Pan" for San Francisco public radio affiliate KQED
KQED-FM
KQED-FM is an NPR-member radio station owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, California.KQED-FM was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. The founding manager was Bernard Mayes who later went on to be Executive Vice-President of KQED TV and...
's talkshow, Forum with
Forum (KQED)
Forum is a two hour live call-in radio program produced by KQED-FM, presenting discussions of local, state, national and international issues, and in-depth interviews. The program began in 1990 as a politics-oriented talk show, created and hosted by Kevin Pursglove...
Michael Krasny
Michael Krasny (talk show host)
Michael Krasny is host and senior editor of KQED-FM radio's award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs program covering politics, culture, the arts, health, business and technology. Krasny has served as the host of Forum since 1993....
.
Marshall is also a cook, and has been known to trade music lessons for cooking instruction with some of the San Francisco Bay area's
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
finest chefs. He is also a producer, based in his Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
Gatorland Studios.
He and his former wife, violinist Kaila Flexer, a Klezmer
Klezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
musician, have one daughter.
Mike and current wife Caterina Lichtenberg have released an album together on Adventure Music.
Discography
| Year | Album | Chart positions | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Bluegrass | US Country | |||
| 1987 | Gator Strut | Rounder | ||
| 1996 | Brasil: Duets | Rhino | ||
| 1998 | Midnight Clear | Acorn | ||
| 2001 | Wine Country | Menus and Music | ||
| 2002 | At Home and On the Range | Compass | ||
| 2003 | Into the Cauldron (with Chris Thile Chris Thile Christopher Scott Thile is an American musician, best known as the mandolinist and a singer for the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek. His current band is Punch Brothers whose most recent album is Antifogmatic... ) |
6 | 71 | Sugar Hill |
| Serenata | Adventure | |||
| 2004 | Mike Marshall & Choro Famoso | |||
| 2005 | Brazil Duets | |||
| 2006 | Live: Duets (with Chris Thile) | 6 | Sugar Hill | |
| New Words (Novas Palavras) | Adventure | |||
| 2007 | Mike Marshall and Darol Anger with Vasen | |||
| 2009 | Mike Marshall, Alex Hargreaves and Paul Kowert as Big Trio | |||
| 2010 | Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall |
External links
- Mike Marshall Official website
- Academy of Bluegrass