Solo Bowing

"The greatest jazz secret," "Great Dane," "Fiddler Supreme." Danish violinist Svend Asmussen has been dubbed many wondrous titles. Duke Ellington's first reaction, "Man you play a hell of a lot of fiddle!" Mr. Asmussen has played with many other music legends, Edith Piaf, Benny Goodman, Hoagy Carmichael, Nat King Cole, Herbie Hancock and more. At 95, he is still going strong. After a DVD on his life was presented in 2006 by Universal/Shanachie Entertainments, The Extraordinary Life and Music of a Jazz Legend, he produced in 2009 the Makin' Whoopee! Cd for Arbors Records, and saw the production of Don't get around much anymore, in which the classical violin virtuoso KimSjøgren plays the solos Svend Asmussen composed while living in the South of France years ago. Mr. Asmussen has stated, "My unattainable model was, of course, Johan Sebastian Bach, whose famed violin solos I often practice playing."These solos and the charts of numbers by Gershwin, Ellington, and Asmussen, among others, will attract violinists everywhere, as swinging encores and as integral parts of their repertoire.The greatest secret is no longer a secret ...