Mark O'Connor shows us why the violin is such a magnificent instrument. In the right hands, the range of sounds and emotions can not be beat.
Gilles Apap.
Henry Lau
Well here's a plug for another versatile French violinist, Guillaume Antonini. I'm sure I could find recordings of more classical works given time. And his quartet has just recorded Stravinsky and Bartok's 3rd Quartet...
Swing; https://youtu.be/xvmVhtuihlo?t=1m30s
Mozart; https://youtu.be/N3cW7JZvEcY
Comedy; https://youtu.be/6TLW8_KkLpE
Pierre Boulez; https://youtu.be/uhbRlmPQO68
Jimi Hendrix; https://youtu.be/QVDnT14QuLY
'La Bamba' is a Mexican song. Mexico is North America, not South America.
Some quick reactions:
Gilles Apap makes beautiful music, but I could not find him improvising anywhere on Youtube. Maybe I missed something.
Henry Lau is terrific at "Vivaldi rock", if that's your favorite genre'. Very little beyond that is on Youtube.
Guillaume Antonini is the real deal! Thank you for mentioning him. His improvisations go more in the contemporary classical direction eg., the Hendrix and Boulez, but his Grappelli swing is really nice. His Mozart KV421 is heavenly. He is another soloist star with mastery across a wide range of beautiful violin performances. Thanks again.
I've had the pleasure of hearing Ben Powell out here in LA, and his site is well worth checking out. I thought of him immediately when the phrase "all styles" came up!
His Bach was lacking IMHO, also. While all the notes were there in blinding speed, there was no emotion, no soul. He is an extraordinary player though.
Echae Kang -- High level classical technique and spectacular improv chops.
Two more wonderful discoveries - thanks, Nathan and Roy.
Ben Powell has some excellent Grappelli swing on Youtube. I could not find any Bach, or other classical, but after hearing his rendition of "What Is This Thing Called Love", its clear he has both chops and classical technique.
Echae Kang is a stunning discovery. It seems her improv interests are in the direction of classical pieces, but she brings in plenty of blues skills. Her rendition of Wieniawksi's Etude & Caprice is a sparkling mix of the original, blues using the melodies, chopping, and pizzacato. Her blues improv on Paganini's Caprice #24 is also interesting. She's an amazing and very talented artist. Thanks for pointing her out.
Thanks, Paul for the vote of confidence :-) I'm still struggling with jazz, but I've gotten to the point where I can play gigs althogh I'm far from a jazz pro.
So far there are no violinists who have achieved excellence in both jazz and classical in the sense of having a substantial performing career in both arenas. I think Echae Kang could be the first if she decides to pursue that route. Her classical technique is better than any non-classical violinist I have heard -- even better than MOC. There is an interesting video by the way, of Echae and MOC playing his double violin concerto with the Berklee orchestra. She was a student there at the time. There seems to be more than a little friendly competition going on.
I firmly believe it is possible to achieve excellence in both areas. People on other instruments have done it. Fredrich Gulda was a famous classical pianist who performed jazz at the Newport Jazz Festival, etc. etc. Andre Previn was a master in both camps. Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett have recorded some very creditable Bach on piano. Chris Thile has made a wonderful recording of the 6 Sonatas and Partitas. And Wynton Marsalis has achived fame in both camps although I find his classical playing somewhat lacking.
MOC has recorded a couple of movements of Bach. So far he's not at home in the style. We'll see if he sticks with it.
As far as technical achievement goes, although there have been no jazz violinists with a technique on the level of the great soloists, it has certainly happened on other instruments. Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson have been loved and envied on purely pianistic grounds by many of the top classical soloists.
Tatum, who was known as the Horowitz of jazz was admired by Horowitz. The story goes that the two met -- Horowitz played his arrangement of Stars and Stripes for Tatum, and Tatum played his version of Tea for Two. Tatum asked "How long did it take you to make that arrangement?" "About a month" Horowitz replied. "And how long did it take you to make yours?" Tatum: "I made it up just now!"
I read somewhere that Rubinstein went to see Tatum play in some dive. Someone asked him what he thought and he said he didn't see how it was even possible.
There's a legend of Art Tatum that studio pianists, many of whom had excellent pianos and serious reel-to-reel tape recorders at home, would "kidnap" Tatum, take him home, give him a fifth of scotch, sometimes two, let the tape roll, and he'd play for hours. There's probably a thousand hours of fabulous solo Tatum on tape that we'll never hear.
What about now? Honestly, if you listen to jazz pianists today (and I listen to jazz piano and pianos trios at least 3-4 hours a day), believe me, there is no shortage of chops. Most of these guys (nearly all of them are men, which I think is just too weird) were brought up with very heavy-duty classical training and even though they never made it to the competition circuit or Carnegie, they've definitely got game. Not only is there chops, but there's musical taste, originality, freshness, etc. I think we're in a golden age of the jazz piano trio. Go to jazzradio.com and stream the piano trios channel for a few hours if you don't believe me.
Jazz violin is somehow different. I've argued many times that I think there must be some organic impediment to playing true idiomatic improvised jazz on the violin, which I have previously speculated may be due to its tuning in fifths. I tried setting up a violin in fourths but I never had the time to give that project a real college try. (The guitar and the bass are tuned in fourths, and they're ubiquitous in jazz.)
So, lots of classical pianists with great chops move over into jazz. And yet, while the number of violinists with sufficient chops is astronomical, the number that could hold their own with a run-of-the-mill trumpet, sax, or piano player at a jazz gig just blowing on up-tempo swing numbers from the Real Book (NOT "Grappelli swing" or "gypsy jazz" or "fusion" where frankly you can get away by filling most of your solo time with canned licks or electronic effects) is maybe like 10 in the whole world. MOC is one of them. Who are the others?
What about me? I play jazz piano. I thought about trying to do some jazz violin, and now I'm in a Brazilian group, where I might eventually do some improv. But if I have time to spend on jazz, I'd rather spend it reaching the next level on the piano than mediocrity on the violin.
There are some good jazz violinists in Japan.
Yeah? Any YouTubes or self-published recording? I'd love to hear them.
Paul: If you are a competent jazz pianist and a reasonably competent violinist you are 60-70% on your way to being a reasonably competent jazz violinist. It could bring you lots of good opportunities. And you will do the music world a favor. Please think about this.
Maestronet mentioned the Japanese jazz violinist Naoko Terai. I'm not familiar with violin jazz so I cannot say anything about her. Unfortunately, many of her YouTube videos show her playing pop more than jazz but she is a real jazz player.
A few months ago, someone onThe same Maestronet thread also mentioned Ikuko Kawai and Taro Hakase.
A significant percentage of the top Scottish fiddlers from the last 200 years or so have been professional-level classical players - this kind of crossover is just part of the culture.
Perhaps the most famous example was the great Scott Skinner, who was trained by Charles Rougie of the Hallé and played classical pops at his concerts.
Contemporary examples would include Douglas Lawrence, Chris Stout and Alastair Hardie.
Many Scots fiddlers are also respected jazz exponents and work in cross-genre collaborations such as Salsa Celtica.
Roy, I'm well on my way! I've been invited to play in a Brazilian group (mostly Jobim bossas and such) and I'm shedding the tunes (including a few choruses of improv at a time) at home with iReal Pro. I'm not ruling it out! It's just hard to do everything.
Folk fiddle improv is a great skill too, but honestly I don't think it's nearly as demanding as straight-ahead jazz. There is not nearly the same level of harmonic depth.
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August 15, 2015 at 04:27 AM · I did enjoy his folky parts, but his Bach where not in my taste. And his La Bamba sounded North, not South American.
Mark is a brilliant fiddler, but he can't play all styles, if that was what you were implying.