Violinists
 

A few days ago, I was going through some old cds and while listening to them, I found a lot of tracks had violin in them in either a lead or supporting role. I love the sound of the instrument (have for years), but I was wondering who I might want to look into for violinists? Either classical or modern is fine, solo or group, so long as it sounds good. Thanks.

Yellowcard

Shakti.

The Red Paintings are an excellent little band that features the Violin and Chello.

Stephane Grappelli's work with Django Reinhardt is pheonomenal.

Carla Kihlstedt has done a lot of stuff like Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat Trio, 2 Foot Yard, and Book of Knots. I'd highly recommend her has a modern violinist.

Ilya Kaler, modern violinist. I have a CD of Paganini's violin concertos 1 & 2 played by him, very good.

Bob Dylan- Desire and Live '75. He had a violinist who plays a pretty major role in most of the songs on those.

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Dirty Three, Balanescu Quartet. I have a few more but I can't think of their names right now.

/seconds The Dirty Three

[QUOTE=That_Dude]Mahavishnu Orchestra[/QUOTE]

That's the great Jerry Goodman in the original (REAL) Mahavishnu Orchestra, replaced by Jean-Luc Ponty in an inferior incarnation. Before Mahavishnu, Jerry Goodman was playing violin (and guitar) in a rock group called The Flock. The Flock replaced him with another violinist when he left. There were a fair number of hard rock groups with violinists in the early seventies: The Jefferson Airplane had Papa John Creach, and It's a Beautiful Day and McKenzie Spring also had violinists. I saw The Animals a few years ago. The (then) current keyboardist was doubling on hard-rock violin. Keyboardist Eddie Jobson of UK and Jethro Tull also doubled on violin.

Regina Carter is a relatively young very adept jazz violinist. I like her much better live (I've seen her twice) than on recordings. Among the jazz old-timers are Joe Venuti and Stuff Smith.

There are zillions of classical violinists, of course. Three of the most famous in the recording era are Fritz Kriesler, Jascha Heifitz, and Isaac Stern. I saw Isaac Stern in concert once (for free), however, and was not especially impressed. He was standing a few feet away from me, and his double stops were not quite in tune.

My favourite modern classical violinists are Gil Shaham (beautiful, warm tone) and James Ehnes (such clarity). I'm not really a big Ilya Kaler fan, I find that his recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices pales to Ehnes' or Itzhak Perlman's... of course, that may be in part because of Naxos' inferior sound quality.

[QUOTE=FillInTheBlankHere___]My favourite modern classical violinists are Gil Shaham (beautiful, warm tone) and James Ehnes (such clarity). I'm not really a big Ilya Kaler fan, I find that his recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices pales to Ehnes' or Itzhak Perlman's... of course, that may be in part because of Naxos' inferior sound quality.[/QUOTE]

Ah, Naxos. My brother and mother are seeing Perlman this Sunday (the day after tomorrow), and I'll hear a report when I visit Wednesday. No one's mentioned Louis Farrakhan yet, by the way.

Hello, my first post. I was looking around for anything "fiddle or violin" when I came across this topic. Is there any other discussions on the above?

.....while I'm here, I may as well holler out GIVVER!

There now! That ought ta bring out a fiddler, if there are any around:)

[QUOTE=fiddler]Hello, my first post. I was looking around for anything "fiddle or violin" when I came across this topic. Is [?] there any other discussions on the above?

.....while I'm here, I may as well holler out GIVVER!

There now! That ought ta bring out a fiddler, if there are any around:)[/QUOTE]

I was in the music store the other day, and I overheard a clerk tell a customer that you can play "fiddle music on a violin", and of course I thought to myself, "What an idiot." In fact, [i]fiddle[/i] is merely the traditional British term for [i]violin[/i]. Percy Grainger, who grew up in Australia, studied in Germany, made his mark as a composer in England, and then moved to the United States to escape WWI, calls the cello a "low fiddle" and the viola a "middle fiddle". The reason Appalachian Mountaineers traditionally call the [i]violin[/i] a [i]fiddle[/i] is that they're descendents of British Isles common folk.

On the other hand, you can play violin music on a fiddle too, haha!

> The reason Appalachian Mountaineers traditionally call the violin a fiddle is that they're descendents of British Isles common folk.

I didn't know that. Interesting.

The only difference between a fiddle and a violin, is one doesn't care if they spill beer on a fiddle.

[QUOTE=fiddler]On the other hand, you can play violin music on a fiddle too, haha!

> The reason Appalachian Mountaineers traditionally call the violin a fiddle is that they're descendents of British Isles common folk.

I didn't know that. Interesting.

The only difference between a fiddle and a violin, is one doesn't care if they spill beer on a fiddle.[/QUOTE]

Just don't spill any moonshine on it.

> Just don't spill any moonshine on it.

Methinks there's a story behind that, Ned. Care to share?

[QUOTE=fiddler]> Just don't spill any moonshine on it.

Methinks there's a story behind that, Ned. Care to share?[/QUOTE]

It's like a joke.

David Oistrakh, one of the best violinists of the XX century, if not more.

Andrew Bird

He's classically trained and he's a prodigy, but the music he's currently making is very modern and forward-thinking, and it usually features his guitar work and vocals as well.

Vassar Clements
Stephane Grappelli

I like Garth Brooks' fiddle player... Don't know his name though.

I cant remember his name off the top of my head but the Violinist from Dave Matthews Band is pretty good

jean luc ponty's solo stuff
Michal Urbaniak
Arve Tellefsen
Ole Bull

I play violin myself, and I would personally like to list some of my favorites.

Kennedy (classical, jazz, middle eastern... you name it)
Midori (playing with her this year in my orchestra! so excited)
Zox (band) --or rather Spencer swain, a grreat band from RI. [url]www.zoxband.com[/url]
Vasen (a traditional-rock swedish band)
Vanessa-Mae (wonderful stuff. I recommend the albujm "Storm". classical takes on a twist...!)

there are MANY others who are amazing!


oh and last of all.... no, no, NO yellowcard.

Miri Ben Ari - The Hip Hop Violinist
[URL="http://www.miriben-ari.com/"]http://www.miriben-ari.com/[/URL]

L. Subramaniam and L.Shankar

carnatic music =o

[QUOTE=FunknPunk]Midori (playing with her this year in my orchestra! so excited)
Zox (band) --or rather Spencer swain, a grreat band from RI. [url]www.zoxband.com[/url][/QUOTE]
Dude, where you livin? I've seen these guys like 4 times in the last two months since I got here.

[QUOTE=JonM]Dude, where you livin? I've seen these guys like 4 times in the last two months since I got here.[/QUOTE]
vermont

represent!


i've seen zox many times. They oplay up at a venue called higherground a lot... its always fun.

[QUOTE=FunknPunk]I play violin myself, and I would personally like to list some of my favorites.[/QUOTE]

I play the violin as well. I've only been playing since christmas, so I'm only about grade 3 standard but I'm getting there.

I personally don't like Vanessa Mae's playing. I especially don't like it when she does the dance-like tracks of classical music, especially that Art of War by Prokofiev, terrible. :upset: Other than that, I don't really listen to much violin music. I really should start because there's loads out there. I'm not really into 20th century music though, only classical for me!

The band had a violin on some of their songs, also John Cale played viola for the velvet underground.

[QUOTE=ToMsK]I cant remember his name off the top of my head but the Violinist from Dave Matthews Band is pretty good[/QUOTE]

thats boyd tinsley and he is an excellent violinist. absolutely amazing

Im a sucker for well played classical Violin - especially Paganini (tho I never got to hear him of course!) or the Kreutzer (sp).

But my fave contemporary violinist is (definitely NOT Vanessa Mae - but what a great marketing concept anyway)

Michael Urbaniek: the only violinist to ever perform on a Miles Davis album (Tutu). slammin'!

Be sure to check out some of Yehudi Menuhin's CDs.

I can't stand violins actually.. the're like guitars with bits missing. Cello, now thats rock 'n roll.. but a violin, pfft..

[QUOTE=Music Man]Be sure to check out some of Yehudi Menuhin's CDs.[/QUOTE]

Stefan Grappeli :)

[QUOTE=Lady Lex]Stefan Grappeli :)[/QUOTE]

Menuhin and Grappelli made at least half a dozen recordings together, and appeared a few times with each other in concert.

[QUOTE=BadBoyBeanie]I can't stand violins actually.. the're like guitars with bits missing. Cello, now thats rock 'n roll.. but a violin, pfft..[/QUOTE]

Uh, yeah theyre like guitars in that they both have strings. Other than that very little is similar. Violins have an infinitely higher range than guitar, and guitar is an octave lower. The feel of playing each is very different as well.