Joe Venuti/Eddie Lang - Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang: Stringing the blues (their 52 finest 1926 - 1933)

Joe Venuti (1903-1978) and Salvatore Massaro, otherwise Eddie Lang (1902-1933) formed the most famous violin-guitar duo in jazz � a decade prior to St�phane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Both Americans of Italian origin, each became a supreme master, Venuti as violinist, Lang as the first pioneer of the guitar as a solo voice in jazz as opposed to being simply a rhythm instrument. As a musical partnership they produced a whole string of jazz classics. Stringing The Bluesbrings together 52 of these, by now, great jazz standards from 1926-1933. Five are duo performances, such as the title track. Their small group format was as Joe Venuti�s Blue Four or Blue Five, when they joined by Adrian Rollini, Jimmy Dorsey and others (Dinah, I�ll Never Be The Same, Raggin� The Scale). Four of these tracks stem from Eddie Lang�s last session before he died after undergoing a tonsillectomy at the age of just 30. The double CD set also offers three Eddie Lang solos (Eddie�s Twister) and four amazing duets as �Blind Willie Dunn� with Lonnie Johnson (Two-Tone Stomp) and Carl Kress (Pickin� My Way), plus a couple with his own orchestra (Freeze And Melt). The programme is rounded off by a post-Lang session by Joe Venuti�s Blue Six, featuring Benny Goodman.