At this point in her long and illustrious career, violinist Jenny Scheinman exists outside of genre. She’s played folk music and Americana, experimented with global music, dipped into classical, and, primarily, played lots of jazz in its various iterations. Her ability to be genre-agnostic and keep her sonic identity no matter what is one of the things that makes her stand out in a crowded music world. (The others, of course, are her talent on her instrument and her memorable compositions.) It’s also what makes her able to make an album as engaging and artful as One Hundred Years Today.
Inspired by her Palestinian/Jewish grandmother’s travels through Europe as a musician in the 1920s and ‘30s, Scheinman pens tunes that wander across styles like an explorer crossing a continent on their own schedule. Check out the gently sensuous “Dream Beguine,” a warm ballad that sets the scene for midnight dreams, or “Django in America,” a twenty-first century example of Le Jazz Hot. “Stars of the Lower Deck” and “Alive at the Kakadu” lean into jazz harmonies, as her violin leads the music through European-styled translations of cool jazz, postbop, and postmodern swing. The languid “The Edge of Dawn” becomes the first song you hear in the morning, while “So Many Moons” conjures memories of the last snuggle the night before. Most impressive of all may well be “Turns the Wagon Wheel,” the expansive, exciting nine-minute opener, and an announcement that a wild, diverse, and beautiful journey lies ahead.
Scheinman brings the music to life in the company of her longtime musical companions Allison Miller (drums), Bill Frisell (guitar), Carmen Staaf (piano), Kenny Wollensen (drums), and Tony Scherr (bass), along with new pal Julian Lage (guitar). That all these great musicians happily bend themselves to her will is a testament to the clarity of her vision, and helps make One Hundred Years Today her latest masterpiece.
