Photo Gallery – Joe Venuti
Three photographs of Joe Venuti – E.B. and J-P.L.
Joe Venuti was the greatest jazz violinist ever. His duets with Eddie Lang introduced a new way to play jazz. He was inventive, creative, delicate, rhythmic, he swung like mad. He made hundreds of recordings in the 20s and 30s under his own name as well as a side man. Bix joined the Jean Goldkette orchestra in the fall of 1924 and made two recordings, “I Didn’t Know” and “Adoration.” Joe Venuti was a member of the Goldkette orchestra at the time. By the end of 1924, Bix left the Goldkette orchestra and, except for his “Rhythm Jugglers” session in January 1925, did not make any recordings until October 1926, when he rejoined the Goldkette orchestra. Bix’s first recording in 1926 with Goldkette was “Idolizing” and had Joe Venuti on violin.
As a matter of fact, except for “Slow River” and “In My Merry Oldsmobile (fox-trot),” Venuti was in every recording of Bix with Goldkette, a total of 18 recordings, including the legendary “Clementine,” where Joe has a great 8-bar solo with Eddie Lang strumming the guitar. Joe was in several of the Bix and Tram sessions, for a total of 8 recordings. For three years, Joe and Bix did not record together. Joe was with Bix in all of Carmichael’s recordings of 1930 that included Bix (4), in the Irving Mills and His Hotsy Totsy Gang session (3 recordings). Finally, Joe played with Bix in the first two (“Deep Down South” and “I Don’t Mind Walkin’ in the Rain”) of the three recordings made by Bix and His orchestra on September 8, 1930. Unfortunately, Joe (and Eddie Lang) had another engagement on the afternoon of September 30, 1930, and did not appear in Bix’s swan song “I’ll Be A Friend With Pleasure.” Oddly enough, Joe and Bix never recorded together with Paul Whiteman.
Joe Venuti (together with Eddie Lang) joined the Whiteman orchestra on May 19, 1929, just before the Paul Whiteman’s first trip to California to make he film “The King of Jazz.” Venuti and Lang stayed with Whiteman until May 1930. The Whiteman band did not make any recordings from May 16, 1929, until September 6, 1929, when the band was back in New York after Whiteman and Universal could not agree to a mutually satisfactory script. On September 6, Whiteman with Bix and Lang -but not Venuti- recorded At Twilight (one take issued) and Waiting at the End of the Road (four takes, all rejected). The Paul Whiteman Orchestra had another recording session on September 13, 1929 (again with Bix and Lang but not Venuti), where four additional takes of Waiting at the End of the Road were waxed (one released).
After the fourth take of Waitin’ at the End of the Road and one take of “When You’re Counting the Stars Alone”, Bix collapsed. Two days later, Bix was sent home for recuperation and never rejoined the Whiteman Orchestra. Thus, Venuti and Bix did not record together with Paul Whiteman. The final grand total of Bix-Venuti recordings, if my arithmetic is correct, comes up to 35 recordings (issued; not counting alternate takes), a very decent showing. Photo of Joe Venuti in the 1930s.
Pose 1
Pose 2
Photo of Joe Venuti in 1973
