Joe Venuti
| Joe Venuti | |
|---|---|
 Joe Venuti (right) with the Bubba Kolb Trio at the Village Jazz Lounge, Walt Disney World, in 1978 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Giuseppe Venuti |
| Born | September 16, 1903 |
| Died | August 14, 1978 (aged 74) |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Violin |
| Associated acts | Eddie Lang, Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, the Boswell Sisters, many others. |
| Notable instruments | |
| violin | |
Giuseppe Venuti (September 16, 1903 – August 14, 1978), better known as Joe Venuti, was an Italian-American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist.
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[edit] Career
Joe Venuti claimed to have been born aboard a ship as his parents emigrated from Italy, though many believe he was born in Philadelphia. Later in life, he said he was born in Italy in 1896 and that he came to the U.S. in 1906.
Considered the father of jazz violin, he pioneered the use of string instruments in jazz along with the guitarist Eddie Lang, a childhood friend of his. Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Venuti and Lang made many recordings, as leader and as featured soloists. He and Lang became so well known for their 'hot' violin and guitar solos that on many commercial dance recordings they were hired do 12 or 24 bar duos towards the end of otherwise stock dance arrangements. In 1926, Venuti and Lang started recording for the OKeh label as a duet (after a solitary duet issued on Columbia), followed by "Blue Four" combinations, which are considered milestone jazz recordings. Venuti also recorded a number of larger, more commercial dance records for OKeh under the name New Yorkers.
He worked with Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, the Boswell Sisters and most of the other important white jazz and semi-jazz figures of the late 1920s and early 1930s. However, following Lang's early death in 1933, his career began to wane, though he continued performing through the 1930s, recording a series of excellent commercial dance records (usually containing a Venuti violin solo) for the dime store labels, OKeh and Columbia, as well as the occasional jazz small group sessions. He was also a strong early influence on western swing players like Cecil Brower, not to mention the fact that Lang and Venuti were the primary influences of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. (Many of the 1920s OKeh sides continue to sell through 1935, when ARC reissued selected sides on the 35 cent Vocalion label.)
Venuti was also a legendary practical joker (see Crosby's book). According to one source, every Christmas he sent Wingy Manone, a one-armed trumpet player, the same gift—one cufflink. He is said to have chewed up a violin he borrowed from bandleader Paul Whiteman, when still on stage after his own performance with Whiteman's band had finished.[1]
After a period of relative obscurity in the 1940s and 1950s, Venuti played violin and other instruments with Jack Statham at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas. Statham headed several musical groups that played at the Desert Inn from late 1961 until 1965, including a Dixieland combo. Venuti was with him during that time, and was active with the Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra during the 1960s. He was 'rediscovered' in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, he established a musical relationship with tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims that resulted in three recordings. In 1976, he recorded an album of duets with pianist Earl Hines entitled Hot Sonatas. He also recorded an entire album with country-jazz musicians including mandolinist Jethro Burns (of Homer & Jethro), pedal steel guitarist Curly Chalker and former Bob Wills sideman and guitarist Eldon Shamblin. Venuti died in Seattle, Washington.
[edit] Jazz film
Venuti (with Eddie Lang) in Paul Whiteman's Orchestra from the 1930 film "King Of Jazz" performing Wild Cat
The other two selections in the video, played by a sextet of violinists, are Fritz Kreisler's "Caprice Viennoise" and "Tambourin Chinois".
[edit] Discography
[edit] Compositions
Joe Venuti's compositions included "Satan's Holiday", "Goin' Home", "Put and Take", "Pretty Trix", "Doin' Things" with Eddie Lang, "Apple Blossoms", with Lennie Hayton, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang, "Beatin' the Dog", "Black and Blue Bottom", "Black Satin", "Blues for Nobody", "Blues in G", "Blues Inc.", "Dandy Cat", "Cheese and Crackers", "Clown Cat", "Dinner at Nine", "Flip", and "Betcha I Getcha", which, according to Joe Venuti, he co-wrote with Bix Beiderbecke.
[edit] References
- ^ Crow, Bill (1990). Jazz Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press.
[edit] Sources
- Sudhalter, Richard M. Lost Chords: White Musicians and their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945. Oxford, 1999. ISBN 0-19-514838-X
- Baxter, James. The Blue Violin - privately published 1953 biography of Joe Venuti (acquired by AB Fable Archive in March 2001).
- “Violin Rhythm, a School of Modern Rhythmic Violin Playing” by Joe Venuti, edited by the Dutch composer Eddy Noordijk, published by Robbins Music Corp, 1937.
