Joe Venuti

Ground zero for jazz violin, Joe Venuti's late 1920s partnership with guitarist Eddie Lang obviously inspired the European coupling of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Venuti's recordings from this period are so joyous that you'll forget all about influences and immediately sink into his work. Just as good are Venuti's mainstream recordings from the '70s, and his album with Cool saxophonist extraordinaire Zoot Sims. Proves once again that the distinctions between jazz genres are often meaningless.