Results for "violin"

Sara Caswell

2018 Grammy Nominee Sara Caswell “is a brilliant world-class violinist…one of the very best of the present generation of emerging young jazz stars” according to the late David Baker, internationally-renowned jazz educator and former Director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Rooted in an early exposure to a variety of musical genres, Sara’s technical facility intertwined with her gift for lyricism continue to attract growing attention to her artistry as a jazz soloist, sideman, and teacher. Recognized as a “Rising Star” in the DownBeat Magazine Critics and Readers Polls every year since 2013, Sara’s two groups (the Sara Caswell Quartet and the Caswell Sisters Quintet) have been heard in venues ranging from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club to university concert halls nationwide

Regina Carter

Born: August 6, 1966

Regina Carter combines exciting technical proficiency and improvisation with an aggressive approach to her instrument, adding multicultural influence. Her playing is melodic, yet percussive. "People are only used to hearing violin in European classical music or country music," says Carter, "and so we get stuck in this idea that this is what a violin is supposed to do. And it's such a precious instrument and such a delicate instrument... That's what people think: it's such a small, delicate little thing. Even sometimes I play with classical players in a quartet and part of the piece might call to use the back of the bow, the wood, to hit on the string to get a percussive effect or to get a different sound, and they'll say, 'I'm not going to bang on my instrument like that. This violin cost way too much money.'They don't think of it as another way of playing the instrument

John Blake

Born: July 3, 1947

John Blake, Jr. has been one of the world’s leading jazz violinists for over four decades. A four-time winner of the Down Beat Critics’ Poll Violinist Deserving Wider Recognition category he was also one of the top two jazz violinists in the 49th, 50th, and 51st Down Beat Readers’ Poll, Classically trained, Blake first gained recognition on early-'70s recordings he made with Archie Shepp and in the mid-70s became established with a global audience during three years recording and touring as a member of Grover Washington, Jr.’s popular “crossover” jazz band. He then spent five years working extensively as a member of various ensembles led by pianist McCoy

Eddie South

Born: November 27, 1904

Eddie South - violin, bandleader (1904 - 1962) Rarely mentioned now, the violin was an important part of Jazz during it's formative years! It was heard in the earliest New Orleans bands and was present in most all the new 'Dance' bands at the start of the 20th Century. In fact, violin sections continued to be a part of the jazz music scene right on up to the Swing Era. Eddie South born on Nov 27, 1904, in Louisiana, MO, began his career in the 1920s. Due to his Classical Music training, (from Chicago Music College) he would probably have chosen to be a 'classical' musician, but, unfortunately, in those days the color of his skin precluded that option. Starting in the early 1920s, South worked in such Chicago bands as Jimmy Wade's Syncopators, the Charlie Elgar Band, and Erskine Tate

Stuff Smith

Born: August 14, 1909

In the era of early jazz and swing, the violin was often an instrument that carried a hint of an old-fashioned sound—a suggestion of classical music, of the high-society dance orchestra, of the gypsy café music of Europe. But Stuff Smith, considered one of the most important jazz violinists of his time, made music that told a different story: Smith's violin was raucous, rhythmically daring, and bluesy, looking toward the future, not the past. Like most great jazz players, Smith pushed the envelope in his playing, and later in his career he adapted with little difficulty to the new musical language of bebop

Zbigniew Seifert

Born: June 6, 1946

Zbigniew Seifert was an outstanding figure in Polish jazz. When he died he was less than 33 years old. Although his legacy is small, its artistic value until today admires.

Billy Bang

Born: September 20, 1947

The violin is hardly the first instrument that comes to mind when you think about jazz, but that's never daunted Billy Bang, one of the instrument's most adventurous exponents. Over the past 26 years Bang's hard-edged tone, soulful sense of traditional swing and evocatively expressive style has enhanced over two dozen albums by top names in a variety of genres, from the blistering funk of Bootsy Collins and the harmolodic groove of Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society to the intergalactic uproar of Sun Ra. With more than 15 albums under his own leadership, nearly a dozen more in co-led endeavors, and five more with the String Trio of New York (which he co-founded in 1977 with guitarist James Emery and bassist John Lindberg), Billy Bang is one of the more prolific and original members of the progressive scene

Svend Asmussen

Born: February 28, 1916

Benjamin F. Smeall

Miles Jaye

Born: November 12

Singer, songwriter, Miles Jaye, is a native New Yorker; it is there that he studied music theory and classical violin for more than ten years at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Saratoga School for Orchestral Studies and Brooklyn College. An accomplished musician and producer, Jaye is best known for his chart-topping hits, "Let’s Start Love Over", "Heaven" and "Objective" featuring Grover Washington, Jr. His heart wrenching "I’ve Been A Fool For You" has become one of radio’s favorite R&B classics. While Jaye laid the groundwork for excellence with his three highly acclaimed CD’s on Island Records, MILES, STRONG and IRRESISTIBLE; he continued that standard of excellence on his own Black Tree Records with titles such as the ODYSSEY, HUMANITY, ROMANTIC STORM, THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE, TIME TO GET MY MIND RIGHT, DIVINE ASCENSION, ATTENERGY and GOD'S CREATION, featuring his unmistakable, classic Miles vocals