Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti... get an archtop

waldenjazz

My wife bought me a great collection of Eddi Lang and Joe Venuti for Christmas (I think my Django obsession was begininng to bother her) and what a great set! EVERYTHING from 1926 to 1935... listening to these recordings I can understand why Eddie was one of Django's heros and why he teamed up with Stephan G. to work out similar runs. (Can of worms here probably but it's all true). It makes me wonder why Eddie and Joe don't receive more recognition from the gypsy jazzers... they actually had a lot to do with the early foundations of the style. Just listen to these recordings... you'd swear you hear Django and Stephan in there every once in awhile... and there's certainly no problem hearing Eddie Langs Gibson archtop (L-5 I think)... terrific chording and better sounding than a Selmer clone I think... Of course being from Pennsylvania doesn't hurt! The CD's are JSP Records from the UK. The New York Sessions 1926-1935. Check it out and listen to that great archtop of his! (Gibson gave him a new one every two years) Happy New Year

waldenjazz

Of course I should point out before someone else will that Django took the style to new levels... (by way of all the obvious european influences) still it could be said that since Eddie and Joe were from Philadelphia, it could be said that gypsy jazz originated in Pennsylvania... well that might be a stretch, but not too far off the mark!

Wirralgitane

Alright waldenjazz,
I love Eddie's playing, there's an incredible flow in his fingers. After you've gone is excellent so is April Kisses for solo guitar.
Compared to GJ you can see why Django admired him, but there's afew like Oscar Aleman, Eddie and Django of course who played the guitar like the way they did back then, i always thought it was just Django who played guitar like that, then i found all these other players and this type of music that sounds something off bugsy malone or a movie set to me..there must be loads more players that i don't even know about.
Django wern't the first obvisouly but like you said he took it to another level and made it 'hot' is the way i see it.

You can check out Eddie here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3eF8cpNVs

I've been meaning to ask anyone if they know how eddie does the run down without moving his fingers in this clip, if anyone knows its the part at 11secs, maybe its dubbed or something i can't figure it out.

Happy new year anyway!