Search - Artist/Band: Joe Venuti

• Name: Joe Venuti
• Birthday: 09/16/1903
• Birth Place: Philadelphia, PA
• Died: 08/14/1978
• Decades Active: 1920,1930,1940,1950,1960,1970
• Genre: Jazz
• Styles: Classic Jazz, Dixieland, Swing, Mainstream Jazz
• Moods: Amiable/Good-Natured, Confident, Elegant, Refined/Mannered, Stylish, Earthy, Energetic, Sophisticated, Laid-Back/Mellow, Playful, Rollicking, Romantic, Soothing, Boisterous, Reserved, Restrained, Exuberant

Title	Release
1933 W	05/18/2004
1930-1931 W	02/25/2003
1928-1930 WA	10/02/2002
Joe and Zoot and More WA	08/06/2002
Stringing the Blues: 1926-1931 WA	07/01/2002
1926-1928 WA	05/07/2002
Four String Joe 1926/1946 WA	03/05/2002
Wild Cats WA	05/22/2001
Joe Venuti: Vol. 1 & 2-The 1920's & 1930's Sides WA	02/13/2001
The Fabulous Joe Venuti WA	1995
1926-1933	07/01/1992
Joe in Chicago WA	1978
Alone at the Palace WA	04/27/1977
Sliding By WA	04/15/1977
'S Wonderful: 4 Giants of Swing WA	1976
Hot Sonatas WA	10/1975
Gems WA	08/28/1975
Joe Venuti and Zoot Sims WA	07/1975
Never Before...Never Again WA	1954
Pretty Trix WA	12/26/1934
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Vol. 2 WA	06/1928
Violin Jazz 1927-1934 WA	06/28/1927
Stringin' the Blues [Topaz] WA	11/08/1926
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang WA	11/1926
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Vol. 1 WA	09/1926

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, All Music Guide