[Dixielandjazz] Fiddler

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Claude Williams, please!  
There was a jazz fiddler -- on those early recordings with Andy Kirk and the 
airshots with young and manyfingered Basie, and then when he left Kansas City 
with Jay McShann and started making wonderful recordings in the post-Venuti 
style which Ms. Carter deploys when doing the proper hot stuff. 


Grappelly was amazing when still in his prime, and calling himself Grappelli --  
recordings tended to lop off the overtones which could be heard when he was 
playing live.  He sounded different when finally playing from a wheechair,  with 
the amp volume raised and the sound much more electrical, presumably because he 
didn't want to tire his fingers -- but there's plenty Venuti and Williams and 
Stuff Smith and even of course Ray Nance for those who haven't heard a lot of 
jazz fiddle which wasn't Grappelly/ i ......

I have memories of a warm glow hearing the fiddler called George Washingmachine 
jam on Struttin with Some Barbecue.  

There are lots of jazz fiddlers out there,

Robert