'We Are Jazz Musicians Who Play Violin, Not Violinists Who Play Jazz'

While the mass public has recognized the violin most primarily for its place in Western classical music for the last hundreds of years, the viol in in fact has a rich and extensive history of prominence in a myriad of folk music traditions from around the world, including right here at home in the United States. The advantage violinists have over most other instruments in jazz is that their very experience as professional musicians gives them more opportunity to explore these different paths and traditions (from classical music to world music and beyond) in a much more streamlined and accessible way than a saxophonist or trumpeter would, for instance. [...]it was in Alphonso Trent's Territory Band in the 1920s that Stuff Smith first made his mark. [...]her career is quite impressive when thinking about the fight she endured as an African-American woman who played jazz violin.