Rec.1957 / Remaster

Swinging Violin

On the 17th of May 1957 Stéphane Grappelli came to Hamburg for a recording session with a quartet in Studio 1 of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk radio broadcaster. From today’s perspective the trip was a rare event for the then 49-year-old jazz musician, because from the end of the 1940s until the mid-1960s he was rarely to be found in a recording studio anywhere, even though he was already one of the world’s best jazz violinists. His studio absence is particularly puzzling given that up to his death on the 1st of December 1997 he was probably one of the most recorded violinists in the history of music of the 20th century. But from this roughly 15-year period there is actually just a handful of released recordings by and with Stéphane Grappelli.

For the jazz violinist the years before making his trip to Hamburg in 1957 were a time of upheaval and change which left a “gap” in Grappelli’s CV and discography. There are several reasons for this. One of them lies in the technical developments of the time. Music became louder. Electric guitars, improved microphones and the voluminous sound, in particular of the brass section, also led to a broadening of the dynamic spectrum in jazz. With its delicate acoustics it was difficult for a violin to assert itself against the other instruments without amplification. Before coming to Hamburg, Grappelli had already started experimenting with various pick-up systems. But he was generally dissatisfied with the results because the electrification of his instrument had an excessively alienating effect on the unique timbre of the violin and the ambience was lost. This is why he often preferred a chamber music setting in the recording studio, as this gave him the best acoustic results with just a simple microphone.

Another reason was of a personal nature. On the 16th of May 1953 the Manouche guitarist “Django” Reinhardt died. The death of.......
more

Swinging Violin

On the 17th of May 1957 Stéphane Grappelli came to Hamburg for a recording session with a quartet in Studio 1 of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk radio broadcaster. From today’s perspective the trip was a rare event for the then 49-year-old jazz musician, because from the end of the 1940s until the mid-1960s he was rarely to be found in a recording studio anywhere, even though he was already one of the world’s best jazz violinists. His studio absence is particularly puzzling given that up to his death on the 1st of December 1997 he was probably one of the most recorded violinists in the history of music of the 20th century. But from this roughly 15-year period there is actually just a handful of released recordings by and with Stéphane Grappelli.

For the jazz violinist the years before making his trip to Hamburg in 1957 were a time of upheaval and change which left a “gap” in Grappelli’s CV and discography. There are several reasons for this. One of them lies in the technical developments of the time. Music became louder. Electric guitars, improved microphones and the voluminous sound, in particular of the brass section, also led to a broadening of the dynamic spectrum in jazz. With its delicate acoustics it was difficult for a violin to assert itself against the other instruments without amplification. Before coming to Hamburg, Grappelli had already started experimenting with various pick-up systems. But he was generally dissatisfied with the results because the electrification of his instrument had an excessively alienating effect on the unique timbre of the violin and the ambience was lost. This is why he often preferred a chamber music setting in the recording studio, as this gave him the best acoustic results with just a simple microphone.

Another reason was of a personal nature. On the 16th of May 1953 the Manouche guitarist “Django” Reinhardt died. The death of.......
more