Bob Joslin Preview

By Bob PROTZMAN

Although the violin is played by far fewer musicians in jazz than most other instruments, don't tell jazz violinist Bob Joslin that his instrument plays second fiddle to the others.

An Erie native now living in San Francisco, Joslin is proud of his instrumental choice, calling the violin "versatile, with a beautiful sound."

Further extolling the violin's virtues in a phone conversation, Joslin said, "The violin can produce just as interesting an array of notes as a horn, the piano, or whatever."

Another in a long line of professional players who studied with Erie's Basil Ronzitti, arguably the dean of local music teachers, Joslin is coming home to visit family and friends and be guest artist with Ronzitti and group Saturday night at the Papermoon Restaurant and Jazz Gallery.

While represented by a small number of players, the violin, nevertheless, has a long and lively history in jazz that dates to turn of the 19th century ragtime to today.

Major figures include:

Swing Era: Joe Venuti, Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, and Ray Nance.

Jazz/rock/fusion: Michael White, Jean-Luc Ponty and Michal Urbaniak.

Avant-gardists John Blake, Leroy Jenkins, and recent Erie visitor Billy Bang.

Mainstream/modern: Regina Carter.

Then there is cross-generational Johnny Frigo of Chicago, who played in Meadville several years ago in one of Joe Boughton's presentations. Frigo is still playing with skill and verve at 90!

Joslin certainly is familiar with and admiring of many of the violinists who preceded him, yet he says horn players as much or more influenced him.

"I was as influenced by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and other horn players, as well as Grappelli, Ponty and other violinists," he says.

"I try not to sound like a violinist. I do that by approaching the instrument not through the violin tradition, but the jazz tradition," he says.

Joslin became a violinist by chance.

At age 18, when he was becoming a heavy jazz fan, he discovered a violin in the basement of his home. It turned out that his mother, unbeknownst to him, had studied violin as a child and though she had quit playing, held on to the instrument all these years.

"I decided to resurrect it. It saved me the trouble of buying an instrument at a time when I couldn't have afforded one," he says. "I was given a challenge. I loved jazz, here was a violin, and no one was doing anything with it. I thought here it is, let's give it a shot. Rather than becoming another horn player, I could do something really different."

He began studying his new instrument-first for about a year in the early 70s with Erie classical violinist Salvatore Cresce (Cre-she)--now retired at 91, he was a member of the Erie Philharmonic for 20 years, a teacher for 50--then Ronzitti for 18 months. While Joslin learned to get around the instrument with Cresce, pianist Ronzitti taught him theory and improvisation that Joslin was able to apply to jazz violin.

Soon, Joslin had formed a band he called Quintessence that played around Erie circa 1973. The bassist Tony Stefanelli, who plays with Ronzitti at Papermoon, as well as in the band Cat's a Bear, was a member of Quintessence.

Since moving to San Francisco in 1982, he has had a full, if not full time, jazz career. He has played with a wide variety of groups and individuals in the Bay Area, and has recorded three CDs, each with different instrumentation. The most recent is titled "Intuition" (JazzMuse).

As for his Papermoon gig, Joslin says, "I believe I've developed a pretty formidable approach, and I think anyone who likes mainstream and post-bop jazz will like what I do."

Jazz violinist Bob Joslin, with pianist Basil Ronzitti, bassist Dick Thompson and drummer Brad Amidon, 8:30-11:30 p.m. Saturday at Papermoon Restaurant, Gallery & Jazz Club, 1325 State St. $10 cover charge; for information, call 455-7766.

For further information on Bob Joslin, check the website www.jazzmuse.com

Bob Protzman has written about jazz for five decades and hosts "Everything Jazz," 9 to midnight Sundays on WQLN-FM 91.3. You can reach Bob at protz@verizon.net or jazzhosts@wqln.org.

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