Joe Venuti: One of Two

Being forever associated with guitarist Eddie Lang isn’t a bad lot to get stuck with. As Lang and Joe Venuti recorded countless duets during the formative years of jazz, when it was still an occult, vagabond scene with only a modicum of respect coming from the expanses of the American populace, the pair can easily be thought of as the immediate antecedent of Django Rheinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. During the time that Lang and Venuti performed together, the recorded life of music wasn’t too old, deep or spread about too well. But as they continued to cut sides and perform with various dance bands or big band jazz groups, the pair’s ability to play off of one another served to introduce the idea of improvising into any composed piece of music. The untimely death of the guitarist during the early ‘30s, though, stalled Venuti’s career.

Obviously, having a strong bond through music, the two formed a personal relationship. And it was perhaps for this reason that Venuti, who led an uninspired band through the rest of the decade, would pretty much disappear from the music scene until the sixties. He sunk into alcoholism – and turned a few yarns variously figuring that he was born on a slow boat sent from Italy to the States then contradicting that, saying that he was born on the boot during the 1890s. But upon his reintroduction to recorded music, he struck up a number of notable working relationships.

Venuti’s recordings with Zoot Sims are generally considered the pinnacle of his career – after those dates with Lang, of course. But the violinist also had more than a passing impact on western swing and country related acts from the fortes through the sixties. And a few times during the last decade of his career, Venuti paired himself with Americana inspired players as on the ’76 Flying Fish release of ‘S Wonderful: 4 Giants of Swing, which included Jethro Burns amongst others.

A few of the collaborations that Venuti would enter into during the final decade of his career and his life were in full band settings, like the aforementioned workout with the Americana tinged players. But it was Venuti’s work in duos that not only made him famous with Lang, but found him sounding the most comfortable throughout his career.

During the lost decades, Venuti was occasionally rousted out to record a date. And on the pieced together Never Before...Never Again, where the violinist is accompanied by Tony Romano on guitar, Venuti is able to alternately arouse a somber sentiment as well as happiness in his playing.

Given over to standards, these dates (recorded during the early ‘50s) feature Venuti while allowing for Romano to focus on rhythm and an occasional lyric. And while the original numbers are pretty lively, it’s the ballads on which Venuti is able to summon the greatest amount of emotive playing. Turning in versions of “Summertime” as well as “Autmum Leaves” that make both laments plays into Venuti’s talent. It’s an apt setting for a player so adept at working in this mold.