The Beginnings of Jazz

Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti were our incidental music this week in Mentor Session, and offer a fantastic insight into early American Jazz music. Eddie Lang was an Italian American, who played a variety of instruments growing up (violin, guitar, banjo, etc.) Early in his life he became good friends with Joe Venuti, an Italian immigrant who more or less developed the entire form of Jazz Violin. Eddie and Joe made a career out of playing with each other, recording a variety of 78s for the OKeh Label, that are extremely fascinating, and compelling, 80 years later.

Both of these musicians worked with a number of other well-known jazz luminaries, including Bix Beiderbecke, Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, and The Dorsey Brothers. In recent years, a fantastic two CD set of their recordings was released, which is widely available and well worth tracking down. Music like this was extremely popular in the 1930's, and many Americans of all classes would have been familiar with these amazing musicians.