Half Notes: Jenny Scheinman – Mischief & Mayhem (2012)

Here’s a brand new disc by Bill Frisell’s fiddle player. The music contained within, is well within Fris’ playing field, but there’s some adventurous circuit bent noises courtesy of Nels Cline with his bag of trick effects. Jim Black and Todd Sickafoose are on board, too, so the entire backing band is wicked good, and Scheinman wrote some nice, diversified tunes that lurches from chamber and bluegrass to jazz and fusion.

Going hand in hand with that is her own playing style, as she is one of the very few violinists who incorporates both heaping helpings of Stuff Smith and Bill Monroe. Moreover, she plays well with her bandmates just as well as a leader as she does in her sidewoman roles. No filler on this record, but “A Ride With Polly Jean,” “Blues For The Double Vee” (video below), “Ali Farka Touche” and the hard rockin’ whack “The Mite” are standouts.

If you’re not familiar with this violin player but like Frisell or Cline, you gotta grab this one. You’ll find you’ll like Jenny Scheinman a lot, too.

Mischief & Mayhem self-released on March 6. Visit Jenny Scheinman’s website.

‘Half Notes’ are quick-take thoughts on music from Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.

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