Joe Venuti

Joe Venuti
Joe Venuti with the Bubba Kolb Trio at the Village Jazz Lounge, Walt Disney World, in 1978
Background information
Birth name	Giuseppe Venuti
Born	September 16, 1903(1903-09-16)
Died	August 14, 1978 (aged 74)
Genre(s)	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Violin
Associated acts	Eddie Lang, Benny Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, the Boswell Sisters, many others.

Giuseppe (Joe) Venuti (September 16, 1903 – August 14, 1978) was an Italian-American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist.

Career

Joe Venuti claimed to have been born aboard a ship as his parents emigrated from Italy, though many believe he was simply born in Philadelphia. Later in life he said that 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 made many recordings, as leader and as featured soloist. 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 solos towards the end of otherwise stock dance arrangements. In 1926, Venuti and Lang started recording for the OKeh label as a duet, followed by 'Blue Four" combinations. 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. Venuti and Lang recorded a series of milestone jazz records for the OKeh label during the 1920s. 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.

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, 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. 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, Bing Crosby's home town (Crosby refers to Venuti in his book, "Call Me Lucky").

Venuti in Paul Whiteman's Orchestra

Compositions

Joe Venuti's compositions included "Satan's Holiday", "Goin' Home", "Put and Take", "Pretty Trix", "Doin' Things" with Eddie Lang, and "Apple Blossoms", with Lennie Hayton, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang.

Honors

In 2000, Joe Venuti was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

References

1. ^ Crow, Bill (1990). Jazz Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press. 

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.