Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Most Popular

Reader's Picks

Top Recommendations

A short list of San Francisco's most popular hot spots.
user content provided by: LikeMe.net & SF Weekly

National Features >

  • City Pages

    Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled

    You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.

    By Matt Snyders

  • Miami New Times

    Pimp Daddy

    The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.

    By Natalie O'Neill

  • Riverfront Times

    Babe 'n' Arms

    Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Dallas Observer

    The Fight for Texas

    Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.

    By Sam Merten

Jenny Scheinman

12 Songs

Share

  • rss

By Sam Prestianni

Published on January 18, 2006

It's debatable how much veteran jazz guitarist Bill Frisell has influenced Brooklyn-based violinist Jenny Scheinman via their collaborations of the past few years. But there is one certainty: If you like Frisell's soporific, luminously melodic sound, then you'll love Scheinman's third album as a leader. With the exception of the oompah march groove of "Moe Hawk," the Bay Area native's compositions revel in languid tempos and dreamy, tuneful melodies that are sometimes so sweet, as on the Vince Guaraldi-pretty "Satelite" [sic], they may make your teeth ache. Even a buoyant track like the jig-friendly "Suza" comes across with such grace that it somehow feels wrong to want to kick up your heels. Scheinman's world-class septet -- Frisell, Ron Miles (cornet), Doug Wieselman (clarinet), Rachelle Garniez (accordion, piano, claviola), Tim Luntzel (bass), and Dan Rieser (drums) -- performs her spare arrangements with a note-perfect reserve that makes it seem as if the music is playing itself. Such an absence of overt player personalities gives the entire album a cohesive soundtrack feel, often noirish but sepia-toned (i.e., far from dark). It's an affect Frisell mastered more than a decade ago, and Scheinman now appears poised to carry on the tradition.