Mandolinist Chris Thile is one of those prodigious talents whose amazing dexterity and musicality continue to amaze long after they’ve become familiar. One of the reasons for this is that he has mastered any number of idioms and styles and draws ideas from all of them, as you can hear, for example on The Goat Rodeo Sessions, released last year.
In his recital for San Francisco Performances, Thile begins with Bach’s music for solo violin, but there’s that tantalizing “and more” tag, which could mean more classical pieces, or some of his own compositions (like The Blind Leaving the Blind from five years back), or some of the bossa nova that was his first musical inspiration, or the bluegrass numbers from the Punch Brothers, with whom he has just released another album. Keep an open mind, enjoy the ride.