Jazz violin is the use of the violin or electric violin to improvise solo lines. Early jazz violinists included:

Eddie South Edward Otha South (November 27, 1904 – April 25, 1962) was an American jazz violinist. Biography Born in Louisiana, Missouri, South studied classical music in Budapest, Paris, and Chicago. He turned to jazz because, as a Black musician, the ...

, who played violin with Jimmy Wade's Dixielanders in Chicago;

Stuff Smith Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song " If You're a Viper" (the original title was "You'se a Viper"). Smith was, al ...

; and Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Joe Venuti was popular for his work with guitarist Eddie Lang during the 1920s. Improvising violinists include Stéphane Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty. In jazz fusion, violinists may use an electric violin plugged into an

instrument amplifier An instrument amplifier is an electronic amplifier that converts the often barely audible or purely electronic signal of a musical instrument into a larger electronic signal to feed to a loudspeaker. An instrument amplifier is used with music ...

with electronic effects.

Swing to bebop

Jazz violin began in New Orleans in the early 1900s. Arrangements for ragtime orchestras had parts for violins in which they were as important as the other instruments. The violin was a lead instrument in the recordings of A. J. Piron, whose trumpeter Peter Bocage also played violin. Alphonso Trent and Andy Kirk employed violinists in their territory bands.

played violin as a member of Trent's band in the 1920s and tinkered with acoustic and electric means of increasing the volume of the instrument. Claude Williams alternated between guitar and violin when as a member of the Count Basie orchestra. In Chicago,

was violinist and music director for Jimmy Wade. South was accompanied by Juice Wilson when both were members of the Freddie Keppard band. Violin is one instrument Edgar Sampson performed on as a member of the Fletcher Henderson band in the 1930s. Angelina Rivera was a classically trained violinist who worked with

Josephine Baker Freda Josephine Baker (; June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975), naturalized as Joséphine Baker, was an American and French dancer, singer, and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France. She was the first Black woman to s ...

and Spencer Williams. W. C. Handy conducted an orchestra with a three-violin section that included Darnell Howard.

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 193 ...

's jazz orchestra a had a string section that was led by Matty Malneck. The bands of Artie Shaw,

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...

, and Earl Hines had string sections, though they didn't improvise. Bandleaders who were also violinists included Leon Abbey, Clarence Black, Carroll Dickerson, and Erskine Tate. Violin became a solo instrument in jazz largely through the efforts of

, Stephane Grappelli, and Joe Venuti. Venuti was in a popular duo with guitarist Eddie Lang beginning in the 1920s. Grappelli was a member of the gypsy jazz group Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt. In the 1930s when swing was dominant, other violinists included Darnell Howard, Ray Nance, Ray Perry, Svend Asmussen, and Michel Warlop. Perry and Ginger Smock provided a link from swing violin to bebop. Examples of bop violin in the 1950s include Dick Wetmore and Harry Lookofsky, who was in the NBC Orchestra led by Arturo Toscanini. Jean-Luc Ponty played bop violin in the 1960s as did Elek Bacsik in the 1970s. The violin is well-represented in modern jazz and improvisational music. Mark Feldman is one of the leading performers in modern and contemporary jazz violin, along with Scott Tixier,

Mat Maneri Mat Maneri (born October 4, 1969) is an American composer, violin, and viola player. He is the son of the saxophonist Joe Maneri and Sonja Maneri. Career Maneri has recorded with Cecil Taylor, Guerino Mazzola, Matthew Shipp, Joe Morris, G ...

, Billy Bang and Jean-Luc Ponty. Adam Taubitz founded The Berlin Philharmonic Jazz Group. With this group he played -and still does- as a soloist on the trumpet and the violin in Europe and the Far East. Regina Carter regularly appears in readers' and critic's polls at ''Downbeat'' magazine while playing in an earthy, R&B-influenced style. In gypsy jazz, contemporary violin players include Romanian born Florin Niculescu, Belgian Tcha Limberger, and French violinist and guitarist Dorado Schmitt.

Amplification

Big bands are loud, but the violin is quiet. One person to address the problem was Augustus Stroh, who invented the Stroh violin in the 1890s that was inspired by the gramophone, with a horn connected to project the sound. In the 1930s, Stuff Smith experimented with electric amplification. Since the 1980s an electric violin has been used in which a transducer is built into the instrument. Jean-Luc Ponty's attraction to jazz was influenced by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, which led him to the electric violin. Critic Joachim Berendt wrote, "Since Ponty, the jazz violin has been a different instrument" and compared his phrasing to Coltrane's., p301

Swing to bebop

Amplification

See also

References

Further reading