About to get on a plane for a family Christmas in Poland! No session tonight for our Christmas Break but there’s the first part of my new Etude on Coquette up in the Études course (classroom), for anyone who wants to get some practise in over the holiday period. Also today is the last day of $100 for my Jazz Violin Starter Pack. Combined with the free bowing course in there it’s the perfect setup for becoming a jazz violinist. Get hold of it for the next 12 hours at this low price. Merry Christmas!

Did you know that the first semblance of bebop played on the violin might not have been Jean-Luc Ponty, as a lot of people think? Has anyone ever heard of Harry Lookofsky? He was a classical violinist who led the orchestra on loads of L.A. string sessions, including many of the famous “jazz musician with strings” recordings you might have heard. But he also loved jazz, and in 1959 he recorded a great album called Stringsville. The album has lots of really hip arrangements of well-known jazz tunes and some completely wild solos played by Harry. The interesting thing is that he didn’t improvise. He got his jazz musician friends, including Hank Jones and Bob Brookmeyer, to help him write the solos and work on the arrangements. The lines are full of bebop language and he swings really hard, but he didn’t improvise a note. What do you think?

This is a nice solo to transcribe by Didier Lockwood. For the most part it’s not too tough but has some difficult fast double time sections. I think it was the first Didier solo I ever learned. https://youtu.be/DSucry3r6NU?si=PtzhJLgOSD58RUd-

Was thinking about this today and wanted to know your thoughts? Is it just someone who can improvise over chords? Is it someone who knows some section of the “jazz canon” (tunes from a certain era of jazz) Is it someone who plays “the language” in their solo? Is it someone who can swing? Some might say it’s all of these out together however sometimes one or two of these are missing or one of these points seems to be a min focus over all of the others? I don’t think you have to have ALL of the above but I reckon most of these need to be in there somewhere. What am I missing?

Go on, let’s hear it! My favourite living jazz violinist might be Ola Kvernberg https://youtu.be/ktVELUG8OKk?si=lR9AXKZSyQOXB6X9 My favourite jazz violinist from history is Stuff Smith. https://youtu.be/-yWnOCy3_qY?si=aeRaIy-ht3Zrrvuq