[Dixielandjazz] Aaron Weinstein at the Metropolitan Room

[Marek Boym]

Hi,
A few years ago, Aaron Weinstein was featured at the Caesarea Jazz
Festival as part of The Statesmen of Jazz, which included such
stalwarts as John Bunch, Red Holloway and Bucky Pizzarelli.  While
hardly a statesman of jazz - I believe  this title is usually saved
for septuagenarians - he nevertheless could hold his own with the
rest.
An excellent musician.
Cheers

On 23 April 2011 16:54, Stephen G Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net> wrote:
> For those who don't know about him, Aaron Weinstein will soon be 26 years
> old. Nice to see the American Songbook being played by the young and
> appreciated by an upscale audience.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
>
> Making Standards Swing, With a Wink for Jack Benny
>
> NY TIMES - April 24, 2011 - By STEPHEN HOLDEN
>
>
> The up-and-coming jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein has two secret weapons. One
> is a mandolin that he brings out in the middle of a set to change the mood
> and on which he plays meticulously sculptured arrangements with a sweet
> plinkety-plink verve. The other is a deadpan sense of humor that he sneaks
> into his patter. At the Metropolitan Room on Wednesday evening Mr. Weinstein
> introduced his show, “Have Strings, Will Swing,” by describing the
> intimidating piece he wasn’t going to perform: a six-movement, 52-minute
> work inspired by James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”
>
> Instead Mr. Weinstein, joined by the pianist Tedd Firth and the bassist Tom
> Hubbard, played a medley of three Irving Berlin tunes: “Cheek to Cheek,”
> “Slumming on Park Avenue” and “Russian Lullaby.”
>
> Other pieces in the set, devoted entirely to standards, included medleys by
> Frank Loesser (“If I Were a Bell,” “Moments Like This”) and George Gershwin
> (“Someone to Watch Over Me,” “They All Laughed,” “Somebody Loves Me”). “Love
> in Bloom” was offered as a witty parody of the Jack Benny theme song that
> Benny (whose name he didn’t mention) comically flubbed.
>
> To introduce “A Sleepin’ Bee,” the Harold Arlen song with lyrics by Truman
> Capote, Mr. Weinstein read a description of a character in “Breakfast at
> Tiffany’s” as someone who was as “out of place as a violinist in a jazz
> band.”
>
> “If Truman were around today,” Mr. Weinstein remarked dryly, “we’d have a
> talk.”
>
> Mr. Weinstein’s playing asserts a sharp division between classical and jazz
> violin. Instead of hitting notes, he dances around them in a continuous,
> lightly dissonant musical shadow play that teases you with the possibility
> of a resolution after all the ducking and feinting. The object of the dance
> is to maintain a swinging perpetual motion in which the music is
> paradoxically off center and tightly disciplined. The lines between a
> vibrato and a trill are often blurred.
>
> The coordination between Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Firth was so smooth that the
> violin and piano exchanged long, skipping melodic lines that suggested two
> musicians in a side-by-side sprint. The concert allowed Mr. Firth, the
> cabaret accompanist du jour, to cut loose and make a dash for it.
>
> Having displayed his technical bravura in the first two-thirds of the show,
> Mr. Weinstein retreated with the Gershwin songs into a simpler, more
> emotionally expressive mode. He is not really a descendant of Jack Benny,
> but of Woody Allen, with serious musical talent.
>
> Aaron Weinstein performs on Tuesday and on May 11 and 23 at the Metropolitan
> Room, 34 West 22nd Street, Manhattan; (212) 206-0440, metropolitanroom.com
>
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