I like this grouping and I'd go ahead and add Thile, as the fourth. He's young, but he's already put in almost 30 years, so....
And sure, that grouping leaves out many, many people I would consider "masters" of the instrument -- Jethro, Skaggs, Jesse McReynolds, Ronnie McCoury, Marty Stuart, etc............well, too many to list, we'd really need a bigger mountain!
There is a good reason to add Thile - his range of music on the mandolin. Bluegrass to Bach!
"people I would consider "masters" of the instrument"
Too many to list indeed if we get beyond American roots/BG/etc. players.
What about Jacob de Bandolim?
What about Munier?
What about guys like Siegel?
and only a few of us have mentioned the Israelis, with those Kerman mandolins and fantastic chops and soul.
I believe some of us are missing the point. Yes there are 20 or 30 or 40 or more “masters” of the instrument. They belong in a Hall of Fame. Not Mount Rushmore. We have had 45 presidents of the USA. Only 4 are on Mt. Rushmore. Hose particular 4 were chosen because they did something beyond mere competence or even mastery of their job. See my previous post. Likewise, if we put a mandolinist or maker on our own Rushmore then being a master of the instrument is not enough. They must represent a significance beyond that, IMHO.
Don
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Thile is the vexing one. He absolutely is the standard of mandolin atm. But he's not yet 40. Has he done enough to earn his place? Certainly the Dawg has 45-50 years of achievement behind him. I suppose multidon is correct when he says that Thile has 30 years and (this is the bit I'm considering) which is probably enough...
The lovely thing about mandolin is that it's growing, in a way, that, say, the saxophone isn't at the moment (I love the sax, don't get me wrong, but there aren't any young players pushing it forward at the moment. There will be (and I know now I'll get responses pointing me out to people I'm not aware of... so we'll see.)
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