Joe Venuti
Although renowned as one of the world's great practical jokers (he once called a couple dozen bass players with an alleged gig and asked them to show up with their instruments at a busy street corner just so he could view the resulting chaos), Joe Venuti's real importance to jazz is as improvised music's first great violinist. He was a boyhood friend of Eddie Lang (jazz's first great guitarist) and the duo teamed up in a countless number of settings during the second half of the 1920s, including recording influential duets. Venuti moved to New York in 1925, and immediately he and Lang were greatly in demand for jazz recordings, studio work, and club appearances. Venuti seemed to play with every top white jazz musician during the segregated era and, in 1929, he and Lang joined Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, appearing in the film The King of Jazz.
Lang's premature death in 1933 was a major blow to Venuti, who gradually faded away from the spotlight. In 1935, after visiting Europe, the violinist formed a big band and, although it survived quite awhile and helped introduce both singer Kay Starr and drummer Barrett Deems, it was a minor-league orchestra that only recorded four songs (which Venuti characteristically titled "Flip," "Flop," "Something," and "Nothing"). His brief stint in the military during World War II ended the big band, and when he was discharged, Venuti stuck to studio work in Los Angeles. He was regularly featured on Bing Crosby's early-'50s radio show, but in reality the 1936-1966 period was the Dark Ages for Venuti as he drifted into alcoholism and was largely forgotten by the jazz world.
However, in 1967 Joe Venuti began a major comeback, playing at the peak of his powers at Dick Gibson's Colorado Jazz Party. His long-interrupted recording career resumed with many fine sessions (matching his violin with the likes of Zoot Sims, Earl Hines, Marian McPartland, George Barnes, Dave McKenna, and Bucky Pizzarelli, among others) and, despite his increasingly bad health, Venuti's final decade was a triumph.
© Scott Yanow /TiVo
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Apple Blossoms
Jazz - Released by Valuable Records on 22 May 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Columbia and Okeh Sessions, Vol. 1
Jazz - Released by Legacy Recordings on 16 Nov 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Columbia and Okeh Sessions, Vol. 4
Jazz - Released by Legacy Recordings on 7 Dec 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Venupelli Blues
Stéphane Grappelli, Joe Venuti
Progressive Rock - Released by Charly Records on 17 Jul 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Columbia and Okeh Sessions, Vol. 3
Jazz - Released by Legacy Recordings on 30 Nov 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hot Sonatas
Jazz - Released by Chiaroscuro Records on 4 Mar 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Columbia and Okeh Sessions, Vol 2
Jazz - Released by Legacy Recordings on 23 Nov 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Very Best Of
Jazz - Released by Brownbeats Records on 1 Feb 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alone At the Palace
Jazz - Released by Chiaroscuro Records on 1 Jan 1977
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Jazz 1927 To 1934
Blues - Released by Yazoo on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Popi / Little Green Apples
Jazz - Released by Ovation Records on 22 Feb 1970
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Jazz Series 1930 - 1933
Jazz - Released by Complete Jazz Series on 29 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Stringing the Blues
Jazz - Released by Retrospective on 3 Sep 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Jazz Series 1928 - 1930
Jazz - Released by Complete Jazz Series on 29 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The John R T Davies Collection - Volume 1: Jazz Classics (CD C)
Jazz - Released by JSP Records on 24 Apr 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe In Chicago, 1978
Jazz - Released by Flying Fish on 1 Jan 1978
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Goog Enough to Keep
Charlie Christian, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang
Jazz - Released by Documents on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Never Before…Never Again (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Essential Media Group on 2 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -