Joe Venuti - Electric Joe (2023)

In the Spring of 1975, during the last sojourn of Joe Venuti in Italy, Giampiero Boneschi - a very good jazz musician and at the moment among the best in the study and culture of electronic-musical engineering suggested to me to do some recordings with Joe but in a different manner; i.e. giving Joe full liberty to improvise with his violin on the harmonies round that Giampiero Boneschi himself will prepare with the electronic instruments. The idea was liked by Joe and the proposal was put into action.

The day of the session was certainly one of the most exciting, which I shall always remember, as I was myself present as a spectator. While I was following Joe's improvisations on the electrified violin, my thoughts drew me back half a century ago, to those heroic years of the jazz period, when Venuti was playing alongside BIX BEIDERBECKE. The progress has changed and will keep changing many things, but as long as the swing and the improvisations stimulate the musician, the essence of jazz will always remain.

During the recording interval which took place in Boneschi's studio we went to have lunch in a near-by restaurant called Al Forchettone and there Joe told us many amusing anecdotes of his long experience as a musician. Then when we went back to work Joe improvised a piece and entitled it 'Forchettone Blues' in honor of the excellent plate of mushrooms he enjoyed there.

The session lasted till very late in the evening and all of us were satisfied with the result. After that Mr.Boneschi had another idea. He called Attilio Donadio - one among the best Italian jazz clarinetists, and suggested his presence in the session with proper and efficient participation. Mr. Donadio had such a happy moment and he played his clarinet so well, that it fitted its way so remarkably in that particular electronic atmosphere, with the traditional sound of the instrument.

Congratulations to Giampiero Boneschi who is always on the look for new particular effects and for varied sonorities. Also thanks to our friend JOE VENUTI, because of his younish enthusiasm in taking-up matters notwithstanding that he passed the 80s, he accepted to do the recordings. This confirms him once again to be one of the most valid jazz violinists of all times. Notes from original Producer, Dante Panzuti