Joe Venuti - Playing Style

Playing Style

Venuti pioneered the violin as a solo instrument to the jazz world. He was famous for a fast, “hot” playing style characteristic of jazz soloists in the 1920s and the swing era. His solos have been described as incredibly rhythmic with patterns of duplets and running eighth and sixteenth notes. He favored a lively, fast tempo that showed off his superior technique. Venuti was a virtuosic player with a wide range of techniques including left hand pizzicato and runs spanning the length of the fingerboard. He also frequently implemented slides common in blues and country fiddle playing. Occasionally, he used a strange technique in which he unscrewed the end of his bow and wrapped the bow hair around the strings of the violin, lending the subsequent sound a “wild” tone. He was particularly notable in small ensemble jazz, since the force of the horns in big band jazz was sufficient to drown out the violin, prior to the invention of the musical amplifier.