Duets with Corky and guest of Chamber Blues

RANDY SABIEN

Randy Sabien, on jazz violin, is the “real thing” according to premier national Jazz critic Howard Reich. National Public Radio’s “Jazz Profiles” dubbed Randy; “The past, present, and future of jazz violin.” Down Beat Magazine’s annual critic’s poll voted him as; “Artist Deserving Wider Recognition.”  

Chicago Tribune says," Listen closely to Sabien's great cascades of notes, and you will hear the grand arpeggios, broken octaves, double-stops, trills, and tremolos that have marked classical violin playing since the solo work of J.S. Bach. But that's just the starting point for Sabien's art which bristles with the spirit of bona fide jazz improvisation".

For Randy, the term Jazz Violin is little more than the name of the musical genre where his recordings are found. He regularly steps beyond the boundaries of what many think of as jazz, forging headlong into the worlds of rock, blues and funk. His career began with classical violin lessons, he soon picked up fiddling and from there it was only natural he would find himself playing along with his favorite rock tunes. Then at age 19 he was reborn with the discovery that you could play jazz on the violin. The resulting sound is swinging, rocking, rhythmic and bluesy with a fiddle that often plays more like a saxophone than a violin. There are shades of Duke and Miles and you can certainly hear the echoes of the great jazz violinists from the swing era but above all, Randy is a product of his time - someone who grew up playing the violin while immersed in the music of the 60s and 70s.

Hold on to your seat - it is justi mpossible to sit still when Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues with Randy Sabien starts swinging with foot-tapping fun with a nod to "keen phrasing in courteous respect to Stephane Grappelli."