I posted something like this in the strings forum, where it sank without trace ages ago.

Viohazard is studying jazz with his violin teacher, but there is no material available here that is specific to violin or any other bowed string. I'm not sure that his teacher studied much jazz at college (Berklee), but he worked as an assistant to a Japanese jazz musician for a couple of years after he graduated.

What's most popular here is Grappelli-tradition gypsy jazz, so Viohazard's teacher has him listen to CDs, pick out tunes, memorize them, and play them, on the grounds that he first needs to be able to recognize and create a jazz sound.

The books they've found so far are 1001 Jazz Licks, which they analyze and discuss; and a Japanese set of standard jazz songs, with some quite useful notes on each one, discussing the basic scales used etc. BOth are aimed at "any C instrument", and Viohazard's teacher was disappointed not to be able to find anything that really covered the styles most popular in violin.


So, violinists, what jazz do you like to listen to or play, and Violinia, what would you want a violin jazz syllabus/student to cover (not that I'm asking for all your professional secrets, just curious to know what you think should be emphasized for violin!)

There are two really good gypsy jazz violin books on the market: Martin Norgaard's 'Getting into Gypsy Jazz' and a new book by Tim Kliphuis - google him and you should be able to find the book. Other good books are 'Jazz Fiddle Wizard Junior' books 1&2 and 'Jazz Fiddle Wizard'. I recommend starting with Jazz Fiddle Wizard Junior books 1&2 as Jazz Fiddle Wizard is for college-level jazzers, really.

All the above books can be found online, but I do recommend going through them with someone who already plays jazz violin. Jazz is so much about feel and if the teacher doesn't have a feel for jazz themselves, they're not going to be able to pass on an understanding of jazz though any amount of books, unfortunately. Advertise for a jazz violin teacher - there must be one out there somewhere within reach!

Good luck!

Thank you very much for helping me out.

I will check the books. I do have an interest in folk music, and other types of music. Could you tell me about the difference between modern jazz and gypsy type jazz please?

My teacher does play jazz, and sometimes he plays some jazz with a trio (he says it's a"sort-of-jazz", because not many people like totally jazz music around here).

I am now learning jazz from him. I really enjoy the rhythm .

Thank you for helping me.

There are a lot of differences between modern jazz and gypsy jazz. The tunes featured in modern jazz tend to be newer tunes or modern arrangements of older tunes. The modern arrangments would use different sorts of chords - more 'altered' chords for example but to explain what that means would mean going into jazz theory which I haven't got time to do right now! Anyway, improvising over altered chords requires a different sort of playing, using more modes (aelion, dorian etc) and scales like the 'dominant bebop' scale.

Gypsy jazz is a style originated by Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt in the 30s. They played the tunes of the day and a lot of Django's own compositions using a line-up that generally featured two rhythm guitars, a guitar soloist who also played rhythm when not soloing himself, a double bass and a violin. Later on in the 1940s, clarinets and saxophones would subsitute for the violin on some recordings. The violin would play in a very lyrical way, but with lots of punch and swing. The best thing for you to do would be to listen to lots of different jazz violinists and compare styles.

I'll post you some Youtube links at the weekend when I have more time.

Thanks for answering.

I listened to Tim. I liked the romantic sounding "Danny Boy" version.

I also listened to Raklo Weinrich. I'm not choosing one type or another, because they are just different, but I liked this because of the rhythm and lively feeling. If I was forced to choose (and I'm not confident about choosing) I would choose to play this style...maybe. I guess it's TPO.

Again thanks for giving me hints. It is a great help.

Sorry Viohazard - I never posted those Youtube links! Interesting you found Raklo Weinrich but actually it's his brother Zipflo who's the violinist - funnily enough I saw them in Vienna when I was there last year - they just happened to be on at the jazz club so I got tickets. To be honest I didn't enjoy them hugely (with the exception of Stochelo Rosenberg the guitarist) because Zipflo seemed to be all about speed rather than expressing emotion and I prefer a combination of the two.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/zipflo-w...459?icid=acvsv2

You've got to listen to Stephane Grappelli. Stuff Smith, Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Didier Lockwood and Regina Carter to get an idea of some of the different jazz violin styles - I'm sure they can all be easily found on Youtube. Regina Carter seems to be the most recent addition to the genre; Tim Kliphuis goes around giving jazz violin workshops all over the place - he plays very much in the Stephane Grappelli style. He's good though! Didier Lockwood is amazing, more modern and with a technique to die for. He holds week long jazz violin workshops in France but you have to be virtuosically good on violin (and preferably jazz violin too) to even get in, and it's all held in French.

Violinia, thanks on Viohazard's behalf (he's gone to bed, lucky fellow). He will be delighted to hear that it was Zipflo, as the name made a great impression! The guitarist they play with is certainly very good.

Thought you would enjoy the following interchange!

Viohazard's violin teacher, on hearing that Viohazard liked the Minor Swing version with Django Reinhardt:
"...Jean WHO, did you say?"

Viohazard's guitar teacher, on hearing the same thing:
"Django played with a violinist did he?"

.. and Billy Bang! And Michael Urbaniak!!

Oh dear! Part of the problem is that there are too many specialists in the instumental teacher world so consequently not enough violin teachers who have looked at the whole gamut of violin playing, from classical to folk to jazz......

'Django played with a violinist did he?' - bizarre! How could you be familiar enough with the name of Django Reinhardt to be able to call him just 'Django' yet not be aware that he played with Stephane Grappelli? It beggars belief really....

I think that has more to do with how hard Japanese people find it to pronounce "Reinhardt"! Our old mate Stephane tends to get the same treatment...

Nickjones8, thanks for those recommendations.