Home » Search Center » Results: Stuff Smith

Results for "Stuff Smith"

Advanced search options

Results for pages tagged "Stuff Smith"...

Musician

Stuff Smith

Born:

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

21

Article: Interview

Jenny Scheinman Brings the Experience of Awe

Read "Jenny Scheinman Brings the Experience of Awe" reviewed by Dean Nardi


Play your violin for us like that wild, joyful hippie girl. You who look as if you might have come from the steppes of Russia instead of the Lost Coast, a remote region of northern California prone to earthquakes and mudslides. You who galloped into school on a snorting mare, its hair used to string the ...

54

Article: Year in Review

Chris May's Best Albums Of 2023

Read "Chris May's Best Albums Of 2023" reviewed by Chris May


Another great year for recorded jazz. Fourteen of 2023's most special albums are presented here. Eight are new recordings and six are reissues or previously unreleased archive items. Joint Number One Best New Albums Of 2023 Irreversible Entanglements Protect Your Light Impulse! There are two contendors for the slam-dunk ...

6

Article: Album Review

The Jazz Doctors: Intensive Care / Prescriptions Filled

Read "Intensive Care / Prescriptions Filled" reviewed by Chris May


Beyond its initiates, the so-called New Thing which emerged in mainly, but not exclusively, Black US jazz in the 1960s/70s, was perceived so amorphously that prairie-wide distinctions between its practitioners went unregarded. Among the general jazz audience, the musicians were lumped together as a horde of crazed zombies who lacked all technique, and who had replaced ...

2

Article: Radio & Podcasts

Marshall Gilkes, Trevor Dunn and Others

Read "Marshall Gilkes, Trevor Dunn and Others" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This show has an eclectic mix of jazz that encompasses swing, jazz-rock. jazz-folk, and the experimental. Musicians heard on the program include Marshall Gilkes, Trevor Dunn, Kurt Elling, Stuff Smith, and Nels Cline. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill ...

9

Article: History of Jazz

Groove Town: Buffalo Jazz And Its Legacy - Historical Insights

Read "Groove Town: Buffalo Jazz And Its Legacy - Historical Insights" reviewed by Barbara Ina Frenz


From early on, Buffalo attracted musicians as a place to live and pursue their artistic endeavors—and they were excellent ones: Lil Hardin Armstrong, Jimmie Lunceford, Pete Johnson, and Stuff Smith. Dodo Greene, two masters of polyrhythm, Frankie Dunlop and Clarence Becton, as well as pianist and bassist Wade Legge grew up here. Two distinctive voices on ...

17

Article: The Jazz Life

Fit As A Fiddle: How The Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 1

Read "Fit As A Fiddle: How The Violin Helped Shape Jazz, Part 1" reviewed by Peter Rubie


Part 1 | Part 2 That was then... Considering jazz is an art form that mostly makes it up as it goes along, it's ironically appropriate that printed records--i.e., data--from the days of its birth are decidedly sparse. We know, at least, that during the 18th and 19th Centuries in New Orleans white plantation ...

12

Article: Album Review

Johanna Burnheart: Burnheart

Read "Burnheart" reviewed by Chris May


The violin has an eventful history in jazz. But it is still a niche instrument, despite a line of singular players stretching back to Stephane Grappelli and Stuff Smith (who deserves some bonus points for composing the immortal “If You're A Viper"). There are no schools of jazz violinists, simply a succession of one-off stylists, with ...

3

Article: Profile

Stuff Smith: Swing Violinist

Read "Stuff Smith: Swing Violinist" reviewed by AAJ Staff


From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in 2002. When Hezekiah Leroy Gordon “Stuff" Smith picked up the violin, the house began to rock. The second major popularizer of the violin in jazz after Joe Venuti, Stuff received great success with his small high energy swing band in the ...

13

Article: Interview

Gabe Terracciano: A Constant State Of Arriving

Read "Gabe Terracciano: A Constant State Of Arriving" reviewed by Ian Patterson


It may seem strange that a jazz violinist should admit to hating jazz violin, but Gabe Terracciano is not your run-of-the-mill jazz violinist. For starters, what other jazz violinist plays Ornette Coleman tunes in a bluegrass band? Nor are there too many jazz violinists who have taken first prize at an old-time fiddle competition, toured Ghana ...


Engage

Contest Giveaways
Enter our latest contest giveaway sponsored by Analog Tone Factory
Publisher's Desk
This and That: November 2024
Read on...

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.