This is a list of jazz violinists who have become

notable Notability is the property of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...

Jazz violin Jazz violin is the use of the violin or electric violin to improvise solo lines. Early jazz violinists included: Eddie South, who played violin with Jimmy Wade's Dixielanders in Chicago; Stuff Smith; and Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Joe Venuti wa ...

is the use of the violin or

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

to improvise solo lines. The earliest references to jazz performance using the violin as a solo instrument was during the first decades of the 20th century. Early jazz violinists included Eddie South, who played violin with Jimmy Wade's Dixielanders in Chicago;

Stuff Smith Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song " If You're a Viper" (the original title was "You'se a Viper"). Smith was, al ...

; Claude "Fiddler" Williams, who played with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy.

Joe Venuti Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti (September 16, 1903 – August 14, 1978) was an American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist. Considered the father of jazz violin, he pioneered the use of string instruments in jazz along with the guitarist Eddie L ...

was best known for his work with guitarist

Eddie Lang Eddie Lang (born Salvatore Massaro, October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933) was an American musician who is credited as the father of jazz guitar. During the 1920s, he gave the guitar a prominence it previously lacked as a solo instrument, as p ...

during the 1920s. Georgie Stoll was a jazz violinist who became an orchestra leader and film music director. Since that time there have been many superb improvising violinists including Noel Pointer,

Stéphane Grappelli Stéphane Grappelli (; 26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997, born Stefano Grappelli) was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the fi ...

, and

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitt ...

. While not primarily jazz violinists,

Darol Anger Darol Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Career Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mandol ...

Adam Taubitz Adam Georg Taubitz (born 7 October 1967) is a German jazz and classical musician. He is perhaps best known for his work with the Berlin Philharmonic Jazz Group, which he established in 1999, and with the Aura Quartett. Life Adam's father sta ...

and

Mark O'Connor Mark O'Connor (born August 5, 1961) is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards ...

have spent significant parts of their careers playing jazz, while emerging artists like

Scott Tixier Scott Tixier (born February 26, 1986) is a French jazz violinist and professor of jazz violin at the University of North Texas. Life and career Tixier was born in Montreuil, France, and studied classical violin at the conservatory in Paris ...

and Jeremy Kittel have devoted themselves almost exclusively to jazz both modern and traditional. Violins also appear in string ensembles or big bands supplying orchestral backgrounds to many jazz recordings. Lately, extensive academic research on jazz violin has been conducted and published.

Alphabetically by last name

A

* Jason Anick (born 1985) *

Svend Asmussen Svend Asmussen (28 February 1916 – 7 February 2017) was a Danish jazz violinist, known as "The Fiddling Viking". A Swing style virtuoso, he played and recorded with many of the other jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and S ...

(1916–2017)

B

* Elek Bacsik (1926–1993) *

Adam Bałdych Adam Bałdych (born 18 May 1986 in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland) is a Polish violinist, composer, and music producer. Baldych is an ACT MUSIC (Germany) recording artist. He is known from a series of record releases and collaborations with music ...

(born 1986) *

Billy Bang Billy Bang (September 20, 1947 – April 11, 2011), born William Vincent Walker, was an American free jazz violinist and composer. Biography Bang's family moved to New York City's Bronx neighborhood while he was still an infant, and as a ...

(1947–2011) * John Blake Jr. (1947–2014) * Polly Bradfield (born 1970) * Zach Brock (born 1974) *

Benedikt Brydern Benedikt Brydern started as a musical protege on the violin giving his first public concerts at the age of 10. He lives in Los Angeles now and composes for film and the concert hall. He has won numerous awards and competitions. He studied with fi ...

(born 1966) *

Charles Burnham Charles Burnham may refer to: * Charles Burnham (politician) (1847–1908), American manufacturer and politician in the Wisconsin State Assembly * Charles Burnham (geneticist) (died 1995), American plant geneticist * Charles Burnham (musician) ...

(born 1950)

C

* Yilian Cañizares * Regina Carter (born 1966) *

Sara Caswell Sara Caswell is an American violinist who has worked with 9 Horses, Esperanza Spalding, and David Krakauer. Career Born into a musical family in Bloomington, Indiana, Caswell studied classical violin with Josef Gingold, but from an early age ...

(born 1978) * Graham Clark (born 1959) *

Vassar Clements Vassar Carlton Clements (April 25, 1928 – August 16, 2005) was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and ...

(1928–2005) *

Blanche Coleman Blanche Coleman (28 February 1910 – 22 April 2008) was a British musician, the bandleader of the renowned Blanche Coleman And Her All Girls Band, one of the first women's bands of the 1940s. Biography Coleman was born Blanche Schwartz in Lon ...

(1910–2008) *

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Coll ...

(1930–2015) * Ian Cooper (born 1970)

D

Jerald Daemyon Jerald Daemyon is an American electric violinist born in Detroit, Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michig ...

* Diane Delin * Eddie Drennon (born 1940)

F

* David Favis-Mortlock (born 1953) * Mark Feldman (born 1955) *

Johnny Frigo Johnny Frigo (December 27, 1916 – July 4, 2007) was an American jazz violinist, bassist and songwriter. He appeared in the 1940s as a violinist before working as a bassist. He returned to the violin in the 1980s and enjoyed a comeback, recordi ...

(1916–2007)

G

Jerry Goodman Jerry Goodman (born March 16, 1949) is an American violinist who played electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra. Career Jerry Goodman was born on March 16, 1949, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were ...

(born 1949) *

(1908–1997) * Valentin Gregor (born 1963) *

Henry Grimes Henry Grimes (November 3, 1935 – April 15, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist and violinist. After more than a decade of activity and performance, notably as a leading bassist in free jazz, Grimes completely disappeared from the music s ...

(1935–2020)

H

* Edward W. Hardy (born 1992) * Don "Sugarcane" Harris (1938–1999) * Christian Howes (born 1972) *

Jason Kao Hwang Jason Kao Hwang (born 1957) is a Chinese American violinist and composer. He is known for his unconventional and improvisational jazz violin technique as well as his chamber opera '' The Floating Box: A Story in Chinatown'' which premiered in 2001 ...

(born 1957)

J

* Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007)

K

Carla Kihlstedt Carla Kihlstedt (born 1971) is an American composer, violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and currently working from a home studio on Cape Cod. She is a founding member of Tin Hat Trio (1997, ...

(born 1971) *

Tim Kliphuis Tim Kliphuis (born 30 September 1974 in Utrecht, Netherlands) is a Dutch violinist renowned for mixing gypsy jazz with classical and folk music, whose recent works have been dedicated to raising awareness about climate change. Biography Kliph ...

(born 1974) *

Ola Kvernberg Ola Kvernberg (born 16 June 1981) is a Norwegian jazz musician known for his virtuosic string swing violin playing and his international performances. He is the son of traditional musicians Liv Rypdal Kvernberg and Torbjørn Kvernberg, and the br ...

(born 1981)

L

Didier Lockwood Didier Lockwood (11 February 1956 – 18 February 2018) was a French violinist. He played in the French rock band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electri ...

(1956–2018)

M

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

(1916–1999) *

Manoj George Manoj George is an Indian violinist and a music composer. He performed as the conductor, string arranger, solo violinist and choral arranger of 2 albums : ''Winds of Samsara'', which won the Grammy Award for the Best New Age Album in 2015 and ...

(born 1971) * Mat Maneri (born 1969)

N

* Stephen Nachmanovitch (born 1950) *

Reiko Nakano Reiko Nakano (born 1983) is a violinist, founder of Strings by Reiko, and director of Sound Roads Music (music school). Early life Nakano was born in Tokyo, Japan. At age three, Nakano began playing the violin. She studied classical music. Naka ...

(born 1983) * Ray Nance (1913–1976) *

Florin Niculescu Florin Niculescu (born February 8, 1967 in Bucharest) is a Romanian violinist of Romani (Gypsy) ethnicity. Family background and education Niculescu was born into a family of educated '' lăutari''. Everybody in his family was involved in music: ...

(born 1967)

P

* Jimmy Palao (1879–1925) *

Dominique Pifarély Dominique Pifarély (born 1957) is a French jazz violinist. He works in avant-garde jazz, but he has also worked in post-bop and other contexts. Career Pifarély was born in Bègles. In 1979, he began touring with bassist Didier Levallet and ...

(born 1957) * Noel Pointer (1954–1994) *

(born 1942) * Ari Poutiainen (born 1972) * Tobias Preisig (born 1981) * Omar Puente (born 1961)

R

Sonya Robinson Sonya L. Robinson (born July 29, 1959) is an American musician and songwriter. Background Sonya Robinson is a graduate of Nicolet High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. In 1983, she was crowned Miss Black ...

(born 1959)

S

* Randy Sabien (born 1956) *

Jenny Scheinman Jenny Scheinman is a jazz violinist. She has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including ''12 Songs'', named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by ''The New York Times''. She has played with Linda Perry, Norah Jones, Nels Cline ...

(born 1973) * Zbigniew Seifert (1946–1979) *

(1909–1967) *

Ginger Smock Emma Smock (4 June 1920– 13 June 1995), better known as Ginger Smock,Dave Soldier (born 1956) * Eddie South (1904–1962)

T

(born 1967) *

(born 1986) * Mads Tolling (born 1980)

U

* Michał Urbaniak (born 1943)

V

(1903–1978)

W

Michel Warlop Michel Maurice Armand Warlop (23 January 1911 – 6 March 1947) was a French classical and jazz violinist professionally active from 1929 to 1947. Early life and education Michel Warlop (Michou to his friends) was a child prodigy who began mu ...

(1911–1947) * Noel Webb (born 1958) * Michael White (1930–2016) * Claude Williams (1908–2004) * Samuel "Savoirfaire" Williams (from Chicago) *

Bob Wills James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although ...

(1905–1975)

Z

* Helmut Zacharius (1920–2002)

References

{{Jazz Violinists

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...