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 Stéphane 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 Blues brings 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.

Contents:

CD 1 (1926-1929)
1. Black And Blue Bottom
2. Stringing The Blues
3. Bugle Call Rag
4. Eddie’s Twister
5. Just The Same
6. Doin’ Things
7. Goin’ Places
8. For No Reason At All In C
9. I’m Somebody’s Somebody Now
10. Kickin’ The Cat
11. Beatin’ The Dog
12. Cheese And Crackers
13. A Mug Of Ale
14. Wringin’ And Twistin’
15. Perfect
16. Penn Beach Blues
17. Fo ur String Joe
18. Dinah
19. The Wild Dog
20. The Man From The South
21. Wild Cat
22. Church Street Sobbin’ Blues
23. Two-Tone Stomp
24. In The Bottle Blues
25. Jet Black Blues
26. A Handful Of Riffs
27. Bullfrog Moan

CD 2 (1929-1933)
1. Freeze And Melt
2. Walkin’ The Dog
3. Runnin’ Ragged
4. Apple Blossoms
5. Put And Take
6. Really Blue
7. I’ve Found A New Baby
8. Little Girl (With Harold Arlen)
9. I’ll Never Be The Same (Little Buttercup)
10. Oh, Peter, You’re So Nice
11. To To Blues
12. Beale Street Blues
13. After You’ve Gone
14. Farewell Blues
15. Someday, Sweetheart
16. Pickin’ My Way
17. Some Of These Days
18. Raggin’ The Scale
19. Hey, Young Fella!
20. Jigsaw Puzzle Blues
21. Pink Elephants
22. Sweet Lorraine
23. Doin’ The Uptown Lowdown
24. The Jazz Me Blues
25. In De Ruff