JOE DENINZON ARTICLES

Read the latest Joe Deninzon interview in heyokamagazine.com

Nucleus (Brazilian prog rock website) interview

Sea Of Tranquility inteview

RELIX Magazine "On The Verge" article (Nov, 2004)

Joe Deninzon wants to take you higher (seaoftranquility.com Oct, 2004)

Citybeat (Cincinnatti. April, 2003)

Roll Over Beethoven (Cleveland Scene Magazine. April, 2003

Interview with Australian Journalist, Justin Donnely (Jan 2003)

"Transfusion". Ytsijam.com. July, 2002

"Jimi Hendrix of the Violin". Toledo City paper. April 17, 2002

"Into the Stratospheerius". Erie Times. April 18th, 2002

"Taking a Different Path". Erie Times. March 15, 2001

Downbeat Magazine. February, 1999.

Long Island Ear. August, 1998

Jazz-rock Violinist has Classic Background. Cleveland Plain Dealer. Saturday, May 30 1998

"Hey Joe, Where Ya Goin? Crossover Electric Violinist lets it Wail Like Jimi." Cleveland Jewish News. June, 1998

New Releases, New Bands Highlight Week in Rock. Scene Magazine. May 28-June 3, 1998

Paradigm Shift. Cleveland Free Times. May 27-June 2, 1998

Urban Composer: Joe Deninzon Takes Violins Out Of The Suburbs. Scene Magazine. August 21-27, 1997

Up-N-Coming: Joe Deninzon. Out N' About. April 24, 1997

Joe Deninzon: Bloomington Voice. November 14-21, 1996

Joe Deninzon's transcription of Jean-Luc Ponty's "Jig". Downbeat Magazine. September, 1999

Planning Your Talk and Walk. Inside Connection. December, 1998

On The Verge (Relix. November/December, 2004)
Mick Skidmore

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Interviews:   Joe Deninzon wants to take you higher

Posted on Wednesday, October 20 2004 @ 17:52:06 CDT by jeddbeaudoin
       
Fusion If you’ve not yet listened to one of Joe Deninzon’s amazing albums, whether his studio work on Electric/Blue, Adventures of Stratospheerius or his current Live Wires, then you need to run––not walk––to some portal on the Internet, buy them and immerse yourself in this Russian-born violinists magic. Or so says SoT’s Jedd Beaudoin who sat down for a phone interview with Deninzon last summer. Read on to learn more about this very talented musician.

SoT: Why’d you decide to a live record at this point in time?

Joe Deninzon: It started with Dave Koerner , a guy I knew for years in Cleveland. I would see him at every concert that I’d go to, especially prog or jazz fusion shows. He’s one of those obsessive bootleggers. I think he’s bootlegged more shows that he’ll have time to listen to in his lifetime. At one point I had a gig out there and he was taping my show and I invited him to travel with us and do sound and merchandise. He would tape all of our shows. So, after about two years I’d accumulated all these bootlegs. I started going through them and found some really good stuff, some of which had been multi-tracked. In addition to that, we’d done a show at a place in Erie, PA called Forward Hall, opening for a band called Freakbass. After our set this guy came up to me and told me that he’d recorded our show, then showed me this secret studio that was behind the club, this huge facility, and it was awesome. And the best thing was that we didn’t know that we were being recorded, which is great because you’re not self-conscious. You don’t care and that’s when you get the good stuff. So, between that and the bootlegs, we had a wealth of material to choose from. So I thought that we had to get that stuff out.

SoT: There’s material from your studio records on there but there’s new material as well. Was it important to you that this record wasn’t just a rehash of the studio records?

JD: Well, a song like "Acid Rabbits," which I first recorded in ‘97 or ‘98 has changed so much since then because we’ve played it live a lot over the years. Now I wish that I could have thought of those ideas back then when I wrote the song and recorded it. It’s almost a different song now, so I thought it would be a unique opportunity to bring it across the way that I’m hearing it now. As for the new stuff .... A lot of my favorite Zappa CDs, the live stuff, consist of all-new material that he’d never recorded in the studio. We had a lot of new songs that we’d been playing, I thought the versions were cool, so I thought it would give people something new right along with the new versions of older material.

SoT: I wanted to ask specifically about "Heavy Shtettle," which you co-wrote with Alex Skolnick. I think that that’s a great example of the diverse styles that you’re capable of working in.

JD: I guess it came from playing with a lot of world music groups over the years in New York. I’ve played with a lot of Middle Eastern groups. I was in a band with Alex’s ex-wife Ofri Eliaz. I was introduced to that music through that band. Having played it so much I started hearing it in my head and started writing down little licks that sounded Middle Eastern. When I got together with Alex, he came up with the bridge and it sort of celebrates our Jewish roots and our heavy metal roots as well. [Laughs.]

SoT: Did you have an affinity for Middle Eastern music before that?

JD: I think that I was always influenced by gypsy music. As a classical violinist, I played pieces such as "Zigeunerweisen" by Pablo de Sarasate, a great gypsy violinist and Brahms’ Hungarian Dances some of that, that old schmaltzy, Jewish kind of sound. But also, I’ve been checking out guys like Simon Shaheen, who’s a great oud and violin player from [Tarishiha, Galilee], who’s played with Sting and a bunch of different [people] .... But being around people who play the oud and so on, that’s opened up all kinds of different horizons for me. So, I’ve been working different kinds of ethnic music into my own and, also, it’s part of my heritage, so I celebrate that as well as my love of rock ‘n’ roll and progressive music.

The title of that piece actually came because Alex said that someone had been joking with him about forming a band called Heavy Shtettle. [Laughs.] I thought, "Hey, that’s a cool name."

SoT: On this new record, you’ve done your version of the theme from The Simpsons. On Adventures of Stratospheerius you did a version of "Peppermint Patty ." There are probably some who are wondering just how big of a cartoon fanatic you are.

JD: That was a really spontaneous thing. We were working with this guitarist named Jake Ezra, who plays on most of this CD. He’s a really excellent guitar player. He’s a huge Simpsons fanatic. I mean, I love the Simpsons but not like this guy. But, one rehearsal, he started noodling, playing the Simpsons theme and I started playing that lick, then it turned into a jam and I said, "Hey, we should do this. People know this and they love it and Danny Elfman wrote it. He’s such a baddass, just a great composer." So, it just sort of naturally evolved. It wasn’t one of those things where I consciously sat down and wrote an arrangement.

SoT: Well, it also lends this whimsical quality to the record, which is refreshing.

JD: A lot of people take themselves too seriously, especially in the prog and fusion world. I’m all about having fun. I think that it invites more people to listen to music, if they hear something that they like with a little twist. You should have fun and keep what you’re doing entertaining for yourself and your audience.

SoT: You also perform a version of Frank Zappa’s "Magic Fingers." Was that inspired by your tenure in Project/Object or does it go deeper than that?

JD: I first heard the song, I think, when I saw 200 Motels when I was maybe 16. I loved it and I became a huge Zappa fan. Project/Object covered that song a lot and it became one of my favorite songs of all time. I thought that it was one of those forgotten songs that could have been a classic but never really got on the radio. I like uncovering songs like that and letting people hear them. That’s also the idea behind doing [Stevie Wonder’s] "Contusion." That’s a melody that I’ve loved and a lot of people that I know love but was never a "hit." It’s fun to cover songs like that.

SoT: Your solos sound great on this record. Are you happy with where you’re at as a soloist?

JD: I don’t think that I’m ever happy. I don’t think that any musician ever is. I’m always trying to develop and grow and explore new territory and improve my soloing and every aspect of what I do. But I am happy with the way that the CD came out, I am happy with the band played. But it’s an ongoing process. Until you reach your dying day, I guess. [Laughs.]

I look at guys like John McLaughlin, someone who’s covered so many musical worlds in his lifetime and he’s in his ‘60s now. He’s still going. It’s a lifelong journey. As soon as you say, "This is it, I’m a genius, I can’t possibly learn anything new," that’s when you’re in trouble.

SoT: Is you interest in world and ethnic music part of that?

JD: Absolutely. There’s a lot of music that I’d like to study more in-depth. I think that I’ve only skimmed the surface of world music. I really want to study Middle Eastern music more deeply, as well as Brazilian music as well as country fiddle music. I’m a huge fan of Mark O’ Connor. We had the pleasure of opening for him a few years ago and that’s a whole world that’s sort of foreign to me because I didn’t grow up around it. I didn’t grow up around bluegrass and fiddle music. There’s just a lot of things that I’d like to explore. There are endless possibilities that you can explore as a musician. And all of these things influence my writing in the fusion realm as well.

SoT: Like O’Connor, you also play guitar. What is it about both of those instruments that appeals to you?

JD: I always tell my students to study another instrument. I say, "Don’t study with me, study with somebody else." [Laughs.] I always tell people that I benefited from having played bass for a number of years. I learned about really locking into a groove and harmony and I benefited from guitar because I learned Jimi Hendrix, McLaughlin and Steve Vai licks and I also compose on guitar, so all of those things [are exactly] what I bring to the violin. And, of course, finger-style technique, pizzicato on the violin .... There are some connections and it’s fun to try and play your instrument outside of the clichés of your instrument. It’s always great to try and imitate a voice, a horn, guitar, that's where the real creativity begins, I think.

SoT: You’re also a music educator as an outsider in that world, I have a sense that younger people are picking up the violin, viola, cello, etc. Is that your experience? Do you think that maybe it’s OK these days to play these instruments rather than just reaching for a guitar?

JD: I think that younger people have always played stringed instruments but that maybe in the last 20 years ... you know, you can’t be a rock star and play the violin. There’s a lot of ignorance there. Maybe it’s bands like the Dave Matthews Band and Dixie Chicks and so on ... a lot of bands use violinists now. It’s sexy, it looks cool and I think that maybe a lot of kids are getting turned on to to the instrument. And there are guys like Mark Wood who go around to schools and talk about the violin. I actually bought one of his 7-string, flying V, Viper violins with frets. People see that or they see a violin with a rap band and they see that there’s more to the violin than stuffy classical music, though classical music is great. But I think that in order to get kids interested, you have to show them all the possibilities. I know a lot of really good players who are getting more involved with education. I think that the next generation’s going to blow us all away. [Laughs.]

Visit http://www.joedeninzon.com for more information.


Citybeat (Cincinnatti. April, 2003)

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Roll Over Beethoven (Cleveland Scene Magazine. April, 2003)

Interview with Australian Journalist, Justin Donnely (Jan 2003)
Conducted 8th January 2003

While violinists are not commonly associated with rock community, there is
one exception to the rule. His name is Joe Deninzon.

The Russian born/Cleveland Bred/New York based electric violinist has dazzled
many a critic, some even going as far as calling him, 'The Jimi Hendrix of
the violin'.

Having spent his early years studying classical violin under his father
Vladimir (Whose a member of the Cleveland Orchestra), he slowly developed a
love of rock funk, jazz and funk.

He's played with numerous big name musicians such as Sheryl Crow, Everclear,
Smokey Robinson, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Johnny Mathis. He's even
performed for Bill Clinton.

Today, Joe is currently teaching violin at the New School University and the
American Institute Of Music in New York.

With the release of his third album 'The Adventures Of Stratospheerius', I
decided to find out just how much Joe had progressed since his last album
'Electric/Blue', which was released in 1998.

"'Electric/Blue' was more along the lines of traditional jazz. It was all
instrumental, and more of a showcase for the electric violin. The new album
'The Adventures Of Stratospheerius' was an attempt to move more into the
commercial front. It's half instrumental and half vocal. I love writing pop
music, and I've always tried to work it into the jazz-fusion context. That's
what I was trying to do with the new album, while maintaining some of the
elements from the previous album."

Other than Joe's versatility on the electric violin, the other noticeable
thing about 'The Adventures Of Stratospheerius' is Joe's incredible vocal
ability.

"Actually, I've been singing all my life. In high school, I played in a lot
of rock bands as the guitarist and lead vocalist. It's something I used to do
a lot. Some people just know me as a violin player, so for a while I couldn't
make up my mind what I wanted to do. I just wanted to create a situation
where I could jam on the violin, and do some singing as well."

One of the many stunning vocal performances on the new album that really
shines is the subtle Sting like influence on 'Sun Goes Down'.

"I wrote that song with a friend of mine called John La Barbera. He's a great
guitarist who I also work with in another folk group. He actually opened for
Sting! He wrote most of the music, and I wrote the lyrics. I think he was
very influenced by Sting at that time! (Laughs) The song sort of came out
naturally, and wasn't an effort to write. I think the sign of a good song is
when it tends to write itself. I'm glad you like that song. We've received a
lot feedback about that one."

'The Adventures Of Stratospheerius' was two years in the making, but with
good reason.

"Just after recording 'Electric/Blue', I had decided to move to New York. So
I had to start over and find a new band. There are so many different players
in New York, so that took some time. Once I had the right line up that I was
satisfied with, it took a while to develop the music and find a good studio.
I was also going to school at the same time. It was a lot of things, but I
also wanted to take my time developing the songs and overdubbing a lot of
instruments. So it was a big production! (Laughs) I think the next album I do
will be basic and raw, and live sounding. But I'm glad I did this album this
way, because I wanted to see how far I could stretch myself with the
instrumentation, and that kind of approach to recording."


One notable member in Joe's band happens to be ex Testament guitarist Alex
Skolnick (Who also released his new album 'Goodbye To Romance: Standards For
A New Generation').

"Yeah, I think he made a great album. I like what he's doing with his trio.
It was a cool idea, and his time has come. I don't think anyone has started
this sort of thing in a heavy metal situation. I've been working with Alex
now for about two years. I was teaching at the New School University of New
York, which is a great jazz school. He actually happened to be a student
there. Ironically, doing his bachelor's degree in jazz guitar. That's where
we met. I asked him to play with my group. The rhythm section has changes a
few times since then, but working it out has been a constant thing. It's
surreal because I was such a huge fan of his when I was growing up, and I
have a lot of respect for him as a musician. I have to pinch myself
sometimes, and ask 'Am I really working with this guy?' (Laughs) I think
there's a lot of great violin/guitar duos throughout history. From Django
Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, to John McLaughlin and Jerry Goodman
(Mahavishnu Orchestra). So I think both the violin and guitar go well
together. I don't know what it was, but he was fascinated about us working
together."


Defying trends within the violin community, Joe also utilizes the talents of
D.J. Big Wiz, providing an additional interesting combination.


"I'm really into this group from Chicago called Liquid Soul. I don't know how
well known they are internationally yet. They're like a nineties band will a
horn section and a D.J. and a kicking rhythm section. They play like jazz
funk mixed with rock. They were the ones that gave me the idea of using a
D.J. in a jazz-fusion context. D.J. Big Wiz is an interesting guy and is a
really creative musician, so I added him to the mix. It was very interesting
for me to see how I could involve that instrument. But right now, when we
tour, we go out as a four piece, guitar, violin, bass and drums. That's
because it's easier to tour. I think that's going to be the direction of the
next album. It's going to be more stripped down."


The feedback for 'The Adventures Of Stratospheerius' has gone beyond the
jazz-
fusion hardcore, with many progressive rock/hard rock traditionalists hailing
it as a unique combination of all things eclectic and innovative within the
typically regimented confines of classical violin music genre.


"Yeah, I'm really happy, and have been getting some really positive
responses. We've had fifty placements on the radio here in the U.S., and the
album has been played in Argentina, Turkey, all over Russia, Croatia and
Canada. It's been picking up internationally. People are still digging it.
It's been an awesome year, and I'm really happy with the way it came out."


So what does make up the typical Joe Deninzon fan base? Are they jazz fans,
violinists or open-minded rock fans?


"It's a strange combination of people. The core of it is people who love jam
and groove bands. People whom like Phish, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Dave
Mathews and that sort of thing. And then there are the progressive rockers
who are into Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment, Mahavishnu
Orchestra for the fusion people. People that are into jazz and some people
who like pop rock music. There's a representation of all different
demographics there. I find it really interesting, and I love bringing
different people with different tastes together. I think this group has the
potential to reach an even wider audience. Those different demographics are
also reflected on the albums wide variety of styles shown. Jam, jazz,
progressive and rock are all displayed on the album. My problem is that I've
always been a scatterbrain. I listen to all kinds of music. In my C.D.
collection I have Strovinsky next to Pantera. I believe what you take in is
what you put out. When it comes to creating my music, it comes from a lot of
different places. So it tends to be a hybrid of styles that seems to gel
together. That's what I'm trying to do. It's still a work in progress for
me."


With the success of his latest album, and tours that seem to extend with
every new week, Joe is not one to rest of the success built up so far. Plans
for a new album are underway as we speak.


"I'm actually working on a new album right now. We're working on two things
simultaneously. The first one is a live album. We have about thirty concerts
we've recorded, we just have to sort through the performances. We also have a
studio album that is about half way done. The sound is heavier, and there's
also a Frank Zappa cover on there. It's more Mahavishnu Orchestra, but is
still going to be half vocal and half instrumental. There will be more
guitars and no keyboards this time around. More strength! (Laughs) There will
be a lot of jamming. I'm trying to focus the sound. Half the songs are very
hardcore sing along choruses, and half the songs are like 'Ants In The Pants'
from the last album. It'll just be a heavy jam. The Frank Zappa song that
we've been jamming with is called 'Magic Fingers' (From the 1971 film '200
Motels'). I'm a huge Frank Zappa fan, and always have been. It's got a killer
groove, and it just works. We've got this female singer who's going to guest
on the album. She sounds like Janis Joplin; she's got that kind of a voice,
although a male singer originally sang it. I thought it would be cool think
to change around. We've also been working with The Simpsons theme. We're
playing around with a few possibilities and covers. I also love including at
least one cover on ever album I do. Something that people recognise, and give
it a totally different landscape."


The idea of serious musicians playing around with the theme tune of The
Simpsons certainly destroys some preconceptions about jazz musicians.


"We're serious on one hand, but I'm an entertainer at heart and I believe in
having fun and giving the audience a good time. It's a balancing act between
pleasing yourself musically, and getting across to people. They're both
equally important. We try and have a blast whenever we play, and I think
people feel it. Ultimately it's about having a good time! (Laughs)"


While there may be little pressure from Joe's record label, there's plenty of
pressure he's putting on himself to outdo the current album and progress
beyond expectations of fans and critics alike.


"I always try and do that. I always believe in moving forward. It's funny,
but I think every musician would agree that whenever they release a new
album, it already sounds dated to them. I think it's because your head is in
another place already from where it was when you started writing the album. I
always feel that this is where we are now, so we've got to show it. Every new
project or album I do, I always try to exceed what I did before. I think
that's the common attitude amongst musicians."


The new Joe Deninzon album should be due out by the end of the year. And with
it will come a new vision and standard by which to measure electric
violinists.

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Transfusion: The Amazing Musical Adventures of Joe Deninzon
  (So Far)
  by Jedd Beaudoin
www.ytsejam.com

  Whenever my grandmother heard a pleasing melody on the radio (in the 80s, when she was in
  her 70s, she favored Billy Joel, Elton John and Tunnel of Love-era Boss) shed press her
  tongue against her dentures, make a percussive cluck and say, ìNow thatís an old song.î  And
  while I know that she knew ìI Guess Thatís Why They Call It The Bluesî wasnít any older
  than the microwave sheíd had since the previous Christmas, I also know that she took great
  pleasure in believing otherwise.

  You can always take comfort in familiarity and, now and again, even be pleasantly surprised
  by it.  Joe Deninzonís The Adventures of Stratospheerius serves as one more reminder of
  that.  Taking his cue from the masters of classic fusion (Stevie Wonder, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jeff
  Beck and Mahavishnu Orchestra) Deninzon walks the lines between past, present and future
  with prophetlike grace.

  Whether channeling the pop fusion whimsy of They Only Come Out At Night-era Edgar
  Winter Group (What's That Thang,î ìPleasurepainî) or sprinkling dusky magic on the ballad
  ìSun Goes Downî (a future classic), Deninzon creates melodies that are as ground-breaking as
  they are
  refreshingly familiar.

  Please visit www.joedeninzon.com for information on upcoming shows and more.

  I read somewhere that you were born in St. Petersburg and came over when
  you were quite young.

  I was four years old.  My parents are both classical musicians. My momís a pianist and my
  dadís a violinist.  There was a lot of discrimination against Jews in Russia and it was very
  hard for people to get ahead in their careers, including musicians.  He didnít want his kids
  growing up in that kind of environment.  We came to the States and my dad got a job with
  the Cleveland Orchestra. (In Russia, he'd played with the Kirov Ballet Theater, which is a
  very famous theater in St. Petersburg.)

  Iím guessing he was your first teacher?

  He was.  He tried teaching me violin when I was five but I didnít have the attention span, so
  he waited another year.  I ended up really starting when I was six.  I grew up, from day one,
  surrounded by music. Because my parents would both be practicing and I think that, had I
  stayed in Russia, I would have probably become a classical violinist and followed in my dadís
  footsteps.  He went through this special government-funded school where you start in
  kindergarten and youíre
  trained to be a musician from age five; you get all your other subjects, but itís pretty
  hardcore.  And itís sort of a generational thing because all the leading musicians in Russia
  send their kids there.  But, here, I went to a public school and I got into American culture and
  American music and fell in love with rock and jazz.  It completely steered me to a different
  path.

  Do you remember what your fatherís reaction was when you started
  listening to rock and jazz and started then playing that stuff?

  My parents were always very supportive but I think maybe, originally, they thought it was a
  passing fad and that I would get serious.  But, eventually, they realized I was very serious
  about this and they've been very supportive.  They've helped me out and they believe in what
  Iím doing.  My dad's actually a little jealous that I'm able to express myself creatively, more
  so than he's able to [while] sitting in an orchestra and following the conductor.  But my
  parents are my number one supporters.

  I know that you have studied music quite extensively--Cleveland Institute
  of Music, etc. But you also teach.

  Iíve been teaching since I was fourteen.  My mom sort of pushed me into doing it, for extra
  money. I was afraid of it at first but she made me walk the plank, so to speak.  I primarily
  consider myself a performer, but I still love to teach.  Iím teaching at the New School, right
  now, in New York.

  Do you think that music teachers are, in general, nurturing types?

  There are different breeds of music teachers.  Iíve studied with a lot of great classical teachers
  and a lot of great jazz and rock teachers and theyíre very different.  When I went to Indiana . . .
  itís a conservatory and a lot of teachers, especially classical teachers, discourage you from any
  kind of experimentation and they make you play it exactly how the composer wrote it and
  [they want you to play it in the traditional way as well].  At one point I was looking through
  a catalogue with my teacher and saying, I want to get that electric violin.  And he got mad
  at me.  How dare you do that!  That's what closed me off to classical music: that prevailing
  attitude keeps the music from growing and reaching the general public.

  When I studied with a lot of jazz teachers, a lot of them were very encouraging and very open
  and very inspirational and then there were also the traditionalists who thought that if it wasnt
  bebop or traditional swing it wasnít valid.  I'm a huge rock fan and fusion fan and I like
  listening to John Coltrane and I like listening to Kiss.  I just want to shake my ass once in a
  while.

  How do you put Adventures of the Stratospheerius in line with
  Electric/Blue?

  The first disc was a straight instrumental fusion record.  It was the first thing I recorded with
  my electric violin.  It was more of a jazz record.  The new one tries to find that fine line
  between hooks and pop music and instrumental jams.  So, itís basically elements of the first
  CD mixed in with [something different].  There are six pop songs that I sing on but that also
  have some great instrumental work on them.  Then thereís more Jeff Beck/Mahavishnu kind
  of fusion to it.  So, my goal is to find that middle ground between those two worlds: the
  Dave Matthews world and the Mahavishnu world.

  Yeah, this could have easily been a straight fusion record, but the vocal
  pieces do give the record a nice balance.  Iím especially partial to ìSun
  Goes Downî which, the first time I heard it, sent me searching for the
  writing credits because I thought Iíd heard it once somewhere a long time
  ago.

  Iíve been playing a great deal of world music, I play with this Italian folk group with
  percussionist Alessandra Belloni, whoís a real virtuoso tambourine player.  I was on tour
  with her during the San Francisco World Music Festival and I was rooming with John
  Labarbera, whoís her guitar player.  Heís really into Brazilian music (as is Alesandra) and he
  woke up one morning humming that melody and a little later everything else just sort of
  came to me, so we collaborated on that song.

  ìAnts In The Pantsî is a very hard-hitting piece, the kind of thing they
  called ëAcid Rockí back in the day.

  When fusion first came out it was very hard-hitting and direct and heavy, like heavy metal.
  And over the years itís become watered down to such an extent that Kenny G and Grover
  Washington and The Rippingtons are all considered fusion.  Some of thatís pretty cool but I
  really want to bring back that aggressive, instrumental thing--the Mahavishnu and Jeff Beck
  Blow By Blow energy.

  You do a few covers here, but letís talk about ìContusionî first.  What
  attracted you to that one?

  Iím a huge Stevie Wonder fan.  Huge.  I love his stuff, I think he's a genius and Songs In
  The Key of Life is one of my desert island albums.  Contusion was one of the few
  instrumentals he recorded and itís such a hip song and Iíve never heard anybody cover it and I
  thought, It might sound cool on violin.

  Peppermint Patty is one I haven't heard anyone cover.

  A few years ago I was working with this management group and they were trying to get me
  onto this compilation on Atlantic Records for the 50th anniversary of Peanuts.  They were
  having different artists covering different songs from that cartoon.  So they asked me to write
  a few arrangements.  The project fell through, but I had a really good demo of Peppermint
  Pattyî and I thought I would put it on this album, because I was proud of it.

  Thereís a great sound to this record, a lot of it sounds very live.  Did you
  do a lot of live-in-the-studio recording on this?

  We did.  Half of the stuff was live.  Contusion was very live.  Sun Goes Down and Ants
  in the Pants were pretty live.  But on a lot of the pop stuff we did a lot of overdubbing.  It
  was very much a studio project.  I think the next thing Iím gonna do is going to be even
  more live.  We've recorded a bunch of songs already and that's the next direction, Iím going
  for a more raw kind of sound.  I might put out a live CD, because we also have a lot of live
  stuff recorded.

  Do you remember when you first started composing?

  Probably when I was twelve or thirteen I started writing pop songs with lyrics.  I wrote pop
  songs way before I wrote instrumental music.  What happened with me was that I was
  classically trained on the violin but when I was a kid I also played piano and I eventually took
  up guitar because it was cool to play guitar at school.  Sometimes I got made fun of because
  I played the violin [laughs].  I wanted to be cool and I wanted to be in a band, so I took up
  the guitar and started writing songs.  I took up bass.  For a while it was like two parallel
  worlds: I was studying classical violin in one and playing in rock bands in the other.

  I was really listening to guitarists like Hendrix and Steve Vai and Eric Clapton and Jimmy
  Page and the music I was writing was more like Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith.  That's the
  stuff I fell in love with.  Then, around high school, I joined the jazz band and played bass and
  started learning about bebop and about the blues and I saw Miles Davis on his last tour.  So,
  that was a big turning point for me.  Then, I eventually tried to apply the foundation stuff I
  learned on bass and guitar to the violin and found that it was already there, so now I approach
  the violin through more of a guitarists perspective: thatís the first instrument I learned to
  improvise on.

  There arenít that many rock violinists, but who were the ones you picked
  up on?

  [Again] it was mostly guitar players and horn players, but especially from guitar players.  I
  always tell people, jazz violinists, Don't necessarily study with a violinist, go study with a
  piano player or guitar player or horn player; learn to phrase differently, it'll give you a totally
  different perspective for your instrument.î

  But as far as violinists, Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra) was a huge influence,
  Jean-Luc Ponty was a big hero of mine and I wrote transcriptions of his solos for Downbeat.
  Didier Lockwood, he's a French violinist that not a lot of people in the States know about
  and I think he's really amazing.  Mark Oí Connor, although heís more in the fiddle world, but
  he can do anything. There are a lot of great violinists out there but I think that, on the violin,
  there are a lot of unpaved roads.

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"Jimi Hendrix of the Violin".
Toledo City paper. April 17, 2002
By Mark Tinta

    Hey, Joe, where you going with that microphone in your hand?
                Believe it or not, he's going to sing.
Fans of Joe Deninzon, who plays electric six-string violin with passion worthy of Jimi Hendrix, know that his first CD was an all-instrumental affair. But his just-released follow-up is something else: A diverse, sprawling joy ride that not only dabbles in progressive rock and jazz, but bluegrass, funk, and world music. What's more, six tunes feature vocals.
    Sure, the staggering interplay between Deninzon and former Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick remains a staple; they threaten to level buildings during their sizzling rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Contusion." But Deninzon's vocals add a personal element to "The Adventures of Stratospheerius."
    "The CD is sort of autobiographical, about my experiences of moving to New York and getting married and dealing with adult life," said Deninzon in a phone interview. "It's about trying to be spontaneous and musical and [still] keeping the kid inside you."
    Music alone couldn't tell the story, so Deninzon sings on the squalling funk of "Pleasurepain"; the acoustic "Sun Goes Down," which has a Spanish flavor and breezy, Paul Simonesque melody;  the bluegrassy jam in "Storytime:" and suggests Living Colour in full freak-out mode. Not that Deninzonmimics any of the previous influences. What makes "Adventures" so, well, adventurous, is how he takes wildly diverse musical strains and makes them soar and swirl on the bow of hi supercharged violin.
    "I like to hear different flavors or colors on a record," said Deninzon. "I like to experiment with different genres and trying to weave them all together in my style. I've been exposed to a lot of great world music and gotten into folk music and some bluegrass flavors. Now, there's some Middle Eastern stuff we're getting into, and we're mixing that into fusion and this whole electric-rock umbrella.
    "Somehow, it all comes together [on the CD]," he added. "I think it has potential to reach a wider audience-not just fans of progressive rock but the general public as well."

Deninzon also wanted more energy on "Adventures." Whereas his first CD, "Electric Blue" (1998), sounded like jazz with a rock influence, this one comes on like rock, influenced by jazz and other genres.
    "I wanted it to rock out more," said Deninzon. "My goal was to get away from the straight-ahead jazz vibe [that the last one] had and just rock out and kick some butt. You know, we're a rock and roll band with a lot of jazz influences and different things going on. But that's where the heart lies."
    In his early years, his heart was split. He studied classical violin with his father, who plays with the Cleveland Orchestra. But Deninzon also played in rock and funk bands; that's where he developed the voice he displays on his new CD. After hearing Stephane Grappelli; the jazz violin master, he knew his future was in rock and jazz fusion, not classical (though he later married a classical violinist).
    Deninzon, 27, later moved from Cleveland to New York, where he met Skolnick and convinced him to join his project. The two display excellent chemistry, especially live, where they feed off each other.
    "He's definitely blowing minds [on stage]," said Deninzon. "He's involved in so many different  projects. He just put out a CD himself. 'The Skol Trio,' which is a straight-ahead jazz trio. They cover heavy metal [like] 'War Pigs' and 'Detroit Rock City' with jazz arrangements. It's very interesting.
    Sos is Stratospheerius, which also includes bassist Tony Pulizzi and drummer Gene Butler. Their burn-the-house- down shows have packed venues in Toledo, Detroit, and Cleveland, Deninzon's hometown. At their CD release party in NYC, the gig didn't end until 4 a.m.
    "They had to kick us out," said Deninzon. "We played until they closed. It was insane, but lot's of fun."

        Joe Deninzon plays violin for a living, just like his Russian-born father Vladimir, a member of the Cleveland Orchestra. You could say he's a chip off the old Soviet bloc, except for one thing. Deninzon plays a six-string electric violin, not an acoustic one. And he plays rock-and-roll-----freaked out and fusion-heavy, laced with acid-jazz and Hendryxian fury. His father prefers classical music.
    So did Joe, for awhile.
"I grew up hearing that music all the time. And my mom taught me piano and my dad put a violin in my hands and they assumed i'd get into classical music," said Deninzon, who brings his band Stratospheerius (with primo guitarist Alex Skolnick) to Sherlock's tonight. "But I really got into rock and roll and MTV. it was my way of rebelling against my parents, but i still wanted to do music."
    For awhile, Deninzon lived two distinctly different lives in Cleveland, where his family settled after leaving St. Petersburgh when he was 4 years old.
        "In one world, I was studying classical violin, going to lessons, going to music school," he said. "In the other, I was playing guitar in rock bands in high school, singing songs. It was two seperate worlds I lived in. And then my dad bought me a (Stephane) Grappelli album."
    Something clicked when Joe heard Grappelli, the jazz-violin master. "That opened my eyes and ears to a lot of things," he said. Maybe he could have it both ways. He confirmed that soon enough from an unlikely source. Cleveland rocker Michael Stanley heard Deninzon play and was impressed.
        He invited me to play with the band," said Deninzon. "I had never improvised on violin before. But it came naturally to me. What I ws doing on other instruments, I transferred those licks to the violin and it wasn't a tough transition. Violin had been one of the instruments I'd been playing since I was 6. And I realized not many people can (rock out) on violin, so I sort of ran with it.

He began exploring more rock and jazz, especially folks like Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, and Jean-Luc Ponty. At Indiana University in Bloomington, Deninzon double-majored in jazz and classical violin. "I sort of developed my improvisational skills on the violin during those years," he said."I studied jazz for a while and classical for many years, but I'm a rock and roller at heart."
                He proves that in Stratospheerius, a group he started in Cleveland before moving to New York City three years ago. Deninzon estimated he went through '20 drummers and 20 bass players," trying to get the right lineup. He's thrilled with the current unit, especially since he pulled in Skolnick, formerly of Testament.
            "I got this gig teaching at the New School in New York, and one day I saw a flyer with his bname on it," said Deninzon. "I introduced myself; I couldn't believe it was him. He was actually a childhood idol of mine. I used to read about him in all the guitar magazines when I was growing up."
            Skolnick had walked away from the thrash/metal scene, however, and was noe studying jazz. Deninzon was bold enough to suggest he check out his budding band.
    "I wasn't sure if he'd want to do it, but he was totally into it and we hit it off," said Deninzon." A lot of stuff we d now is interplay between me and Alex, violin and guitar, and it's one of the main features of the group."

            Deninzon can keep up on violin, since he's got a pair of extra strings-low C and F. "A regular violin has four strings; mine looks like a spaceship," he said. "It was custom built for me by Eric Jensen, it's very unusual looking. I thought I should name it; people kept asking me, 'what is that thing you're playing?'"
        He came up with the perfect name a couple of years ago, when he was backing up Smokey Robinson.
"One of the violinists I was playing with had a solo to play and it was a really high solo," recalled Deninzon. "Someone said, 'Man, that's up in the stratosphere.' And he turned around and said, 'I should have brought my stratospheerius.' I thought it was a very cool word and conjured up images of outer space and different things. And it sort of fit my music a little. So Stratospheerius is the name of the band and the name of my violin."
        Naming a musical genre for Stratospheerius is more difficult; they straddle the lines between jazz-fusion, rock, pop, and funk. A lot of songs from their upcoming CD feature sizzling grooves, while others explore spacier territory.
      "The young jam-band crowd, I think, would be most into what we do-people who go see Dave Matthews or Medeski, Martin, and Wood. Deadheads might enjoy what we do," said Deninzon, who also released a 1998 CD, "Electric/Blue".
        "But also people who like progressive rock, who like King Krimson or Dream Theatre, and jazz fans--fusion fans, especially (might enjoy it)," he added. "People who only like straight-ahead jazz may not be into what we're doing, but we've had a total mixture of audiences."
        Heck, their last show in Cleveland even featured some classical-music fans, his folks and family friends.
        "My parents are like my biggest supporters," said Deninzon."I don'tknow if they understood (before) what I was trying to do. They thought I'd follow th straight and narrow and be a classical musician. But they realize what I'm going for, and they're way behind me. It's really good."
 

    Joseph Deninzon is a 23-year-old violinist currently pursuing a master's in jazz/commercial violin at Manhattan School of Music. A graduate of Indiana University, where he received a bachelor's degree in violin performance and jazz studies in 1997, he recently released his own self-produced CD, Electric Blue, featuring his electric violin playing as well as original compositions. He has studied with David Baker, John Blake, and Gary Dial and has performed and recorded with Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, and the Michael Stanley Band.

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---

Long Island Ear. August, 1998
by Amy kelly

    there aren't many fusion violinists out there, and Joe Deninzon has carved out a niche of his own. Often described as the jimi Hendrix of the violin, he's fused pop and jazz with elements of classical, funk and Indian music, for a heady mix Deninzon ca;;s "psycho-jazz." Deninzon recently said, "Your teachers always tell you to get this pure, beautiful sound on the violin, to make it sound like the human voice. But I believe the violin is capable of a lot of ugly sounds, and my goal in life is to explore them all."
    Together with his band, guitarist Jon Heagle, bassist Vince Guarna, and Jerry Cucurullo on drums, Deninzo has embarked on an exploration of a wide spectrum of music, citing influences as diverse as Stravinsky and Radiohead. They performed recently at New York's Spiral Lounge and a September 8th gig at Kenny's Castaways in the Village. "I like to surprise people, make them see and hear stuff they normally wouldn't hear. I like to interact with the audience, so there's a lot of energy going on onstage. I was influenced by bands like Kiss and Led Zeppelin, bands that really perform. The band dresses in black and we wear platform shoes so we have a kind of 70's retro look. But at the same time, the kind of music we play is a mixture of funk, jazz, rock, a little bit of hiphop and ambiance music."
    "Some of the songs are vocal tunes. We started out doing instrumentals, but we're gradually working more and more vocal songs into the set...One of the greatest influences on the music we're trying to do is the (1970's fusion group) Mahavishnu Orchestra. They used violin, and played a really heavy mixture of jazz and rock with a lot of eastern scales."
    "One song in particular that pays homage to that kind of music is 'Bluzak'. I was trying to put totally unrelated things into a blender and shake 'em up. I took elements from music that I listen to, like a disco beat, then I took some ideas from Stravinsky, and also Frank Zappa, one of my musical idols. Zappa liked to work with a lot of density, with a lot of fast sixteenth notesm arranged atonally over a rock groove, so I sort of ran with that idea."
    After releasing his 1996 cassette Collage and this year's Electric Blue CD, Deninzon is working on new material. "Most of it is vocal, foremost. The songs I'm writing are more pop-oriented. I'm trying to create a bridge between pop  and jazz."

    In the liner notes that accompany his new album, "Electric Blue," Joe Deninzon recalls singing along with Beethoven symphonies when he was 5. One year later, he started taking violin lessons.
    Roll over Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news: Deninzon, now 23, has switched to electric violin. Instead of following in the footsteps of his parents, both classical musicians, he hopes to make a name for himself exploring the middle ground between jazz and rock.
    "I do a lot of  things that a classical violinist would never do'" says Deninzon. For starters, he coaxes feedback from his violin. He also uses a wah-wah pedal and other effects typically employed by guitarists, including distortion and delay.
    "I approach the violin like a guitar player'" says Deninzon, who also plays guitar and piano. "I try to imitate certain guitar sounds. I press down really hard on the strings to create this crunching sound. I also use my violin as a percussion instrument. I can make it sounds like a funky rhythm guitar or a cuica drum."
    Among his musical heroes these days are Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Miles Davis. Hendrix, because his guitar playing expanded the vocabulary of electric sounds. Zappa, because he never took himself too seriously. And Davis, in Deninzon's words, because "he didn't shut himself out to what was happening on the street."
    Deninzon assimilates these influences and others on "Electric Blue," out now on Wilbert's Records label. The album features seven high-energy instrumentals written by Deninzon as well as a cover of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't". Deninzon performed the latter song during his senior recital at Indiana University in Bloomington. He graduated last year with bachelor's degrees in jazz violin and classical violin.
    Deninzon and his four-piece backing band will celebrate the release of "Electric Blue" with a performance tonight at Wilbert's Bar & Grille in Cleveland. They'll return to the same venue tomorrow to open for Mike Stern. They also have a gig lined up Thursday at the Rhythm Room in Cleveland Heights.
    The Russian-born Deninzon spent the first few years of his life in St. Petersburg. his family moved to Cleveland when he was 4. "There was a lot of discrimination against Jewish people in St. Petersburg," Deninzon says. "My dad didn't feel like he could get ahead in his career there and he didn't want to see me grow up in that system, so we got out."
    Deninzon's father has played violin with the Cleveland Orchestra since 1979. his mother, a pianist, teaches piano at  the family's home in Highland Heights. Deninzon's two younger sisters are musically inclined, too.
    When he was 16, Deninzon backed Michael Stanley for one show. Stanley had spotted Deninzon performing at Brush High School and enlisted the young violinist's services for a 1991 concert at the Front Row. A few months later, Deninzon's old band, Three Dudes Singing, opened for Stanley at Blossom Music Center.
        By the time Deninzon graduated from brush in 1993, his tastes leaned heavily toward rock n' roll and jazz. Three years later, he released his first album, "Collage," a more pop-oriented affair than his latest effort.
    "I listen to a lot of different kinds of music," he says." I try to let it all filter through and come out when I write or play. I try not to put too many limits on myself."
    Deninzon moved to New York last year to study at the Manhattan school of Music, where he's working towards a masters degree in commercial music. Between  studies, he has landed a couple of unusual gigs. He recently backed Johnny Mathis in concert on Long Island. He also recorded an electric violin solo that may wind up as background music for a television commercial for Barilla pasta.
    And what do his classically trained parents think of all this? "My dad has trouble understanding some of the music I'm into, but he supports whatever I do," Deninzon says. "My parents have been really encouraging. As long as I'm happy doing what I'm doing, they don't have a problem with it. They're still my greatest teachers."

    Classical-jazz-rock artist Joe Deninzon is part of a new breed: the hyphenate musician. The former Clevelander plays jazz-funk-rhythm-acid rock-fusion and is a virtuoso of the six-string electric violin-an instrument considered an anomaly no matter what genre the musical prodigy chooses.
    Music fans looking for something to hang their hat on should take note: since the age when most of his peers were watching "Sesame Street," Deninzon, now 22, has been  defining and redefining himself musically. In the process, this talented musician has managed to defy most categories. The tracks on Deninzon's just-released debut compact disc, titled "Electric Blue," crackle with Jimi Hendrix-style distortion and the jazz stylings of two of his idols-Miles Davis and Jean Luc Ponty, an electric violinist known for his fusion of jazz and rock. On the opening cut, "Shock Therapy," Deninzon uses a "cry-baby" effects pedal to lay down some otherworldly, wailing licks.
    After tearing the roof off, Deninzon and his band of veteran musicians settle in for an exploration of various jazz-fusion moods and textures. Throughout the recording, Deninzon picks up again and again on that heavy psychedelic groove while mixing in funky beats and tempos.
    Deninzon's flying fingers and bow will work their magic at his CD release party and performance at Wilbert's Bar & Grille on May 30.
    His CD is in rotation on Randy Allar's fusion show on college radio's WCSU 87.9 FM from 12 to 3 p.m. and he will return this summer to play at Borders Books & Music in Beachwood on June 20 and at the Rhythm Room on June 25.
    Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Deninzon fled with his parents from the former Soviet Union at the age of 4. By the time he was 6, he was learning concertos from his father, Vladimir, a violinist who played with the Kirov Ballet before earning a seat with the Cleveland Orchestra, and his mother, Lyuba, a concert pianist. While he was growing up in South Euclid, Deninzon studied classical music at Workman's Circle and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Before he was a teen, his resume' included stints with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Purimspiels at Cain Park.
    "But as I got older, I got into American culture, rock n' roll, MTV and the whole Michael Jackson thing," Deninzon says.
    Deninzon first tried his hand at rock at the age of 12 when he picked up the electric bass. In high school, he was playing bass in a band called Satin Finish and was a member of the Brush High School Jazz Band under the tutelage of Al Krasel, a Russian Jew. In a 1991 talent show at Brush, the 16-year-old ripped through a song on his electric violin. Afterward, an impressed Michael Stanley, a well-known Cleveland rocker and DJ who was in the audience, asked Deninzon to sit in and jam with the Michael Stanley Band at the Front Row Theatre.
    Despite his early success, "most people looked at the electric violin as an oddity," admits Deninzon, now a resident of Queens, N.Y. "But it's such a versatile instrument. You can get nuanced vibrato phrasings like a saxophone and so many different colors-from a bluesy sound to acid rock.
    Deninzon. who graduated from Indiana University with a double major in jazz and classical violin, calls an eclectic group of musicians his influences, including pioneer jazz violinist Joe Venuti, experimental composer Frank Zappa, and acid-rock guitar hero , Jimi Hendrix.
    I like to rock out and use compositional techniques," he explains.
    Since moving to New York City a year ago, Deninzon has played everywhere from Borders at the World Trade Center to the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village. He also teaches music and is finishing up a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music.
    "I'm not expecting to make a lot of money right now, I'm just planning on getting a band together and shopping my CD around to different record labels this summer," he says. " My music right now is a mirror of my life."

    What happens to a six-year-old who gets a violin stuck under his neck and is trained by his classical musician parents? What happens three years later when that same kid becomes part of the MTV generation and takes up rock n' roll bass and guitar, then is turned onto jazz, via Miles Davis' last tour?
    In the case of Clevelander Joe Deninzon, the answer is to buy a custom-made six-string electric violin and rock out every drop of knowledge. The results will be evident at Deninzon's release party for ELECTRIC BLUE at Wilbert's this Saturday, May 30.
    "It was two separate worlds for a  while," says Deninzon, acknowledging the difficulties of bridging classical, jazz, and rock into a singular art form.
    As fate would have it, the father of one of Deninzon's high school classmates asked him to play the acoustic gig that would set  Deninzon in his musical direction.
    "I played with Michael stanley at the Front Row. It  was the first time I improvised on the violin  and i realized that I could  do all this rock stuff on the violin," he says. Now he plays his violin through distortion, delay, and a wah-wah pedal.
    As a guitarist, he was influenced by the fretwork of Hendrix, Vai and Clapton. As a violinist, the fretless wanderings of Stephane Grapelli and Jean Luc Ponty bent his ear. He cites other influences as frank Zappa, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson and John Coltrane.
    All of Deninzon's musical training and his influences have given him a unique voice. "I'm trying to combine everything I like and make something new out of it," he says."

    Like many musicians, Joe Deninzon started playing music because of his family. Both his mother and father, who immigrated to Cleveland from the Soviet Union when Joe was four, are classically trained musicians-mom's chosen instrument is the piano and dad plays the violin. When he was six, Deninzon's father gave him a violin and started giving his son lessons. A violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra, it was the natural thing for a dad to do. But his kid did not think so.
"I hated it," says the younger Deninzon, who grew up in Lyndhurst. "I hated it for many years. It was like a ball and chain. So I escaped into American pop culture. Started watching MTV."
    It was when he was 12 that these two worlds collided. After discovering Twisted Sister on MTV, Deninzon decided he wanted to be a rock star. Although he stuck with the classical violin lessons, Deninzon explored the rock world by listening to Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, and Frank Zappa. He eventually got a guitar and played in rock bands throughout his four years at Brush High School. Although he wrote and played mostly pop-rock fare during his teen years, his sensibilities took on a more complex  dimension when he started moving more toward jazz-a period that he describes as a battle between guitar and violin."
    Eventually he compromised, and like his hero Miles Davis did in the 70's, Deninzon plugged in. "I thought  it would be cool if i got an electric violin and used (a guitar) approach and used my guitar effects (to) try to get that same sound on the violin," he says.
    After high school, he studied both classical music and jazz at Indiana University, but kept a hand in the pop and rock gigs back home during summer vacations and other breaks. Some of  his teachers didn't consider him a serious musician when they heard his fusion of jazz, rock, and classical elements, but that only strengthened his determination and sense of rebellion.
    "When you stop worrying about what society's requirements are, that's when you come up with the coolest stuff'" says Deninzon, 23. "And that's what I'm trying to do. I have a strange combination of tastes musically and I try to accept that and celebrate that."
    Deninzon's first CD, Electric Blue, is out on Wilbert's Blues Records, and the club that serves as home to the label will throw  a release party this Friday. Electric Blue suggests that Deninzon's range of sounds is broader than just jazz or rock. From airy sweeping gestures to grinding squeaks, Deninzon's playing ranges from frantic to gentle. At times, he seems like he's tearing the violin apart, while on songs such as the graceful "Oasis," he plays more like his dad might-elegant and composed.
    "All my life, and during the entire life of any violin student, they're told to make this beautiful sound. I explore the violin and it's capable of so many different things that people just consider wrong," Deninzon says. He uses a wah-wah pedal to funk things up and has developed a technique to use the violin as a percussion instrument.
    On the disc, Deninzon is joined by a solid group of local musicians and friends, who help interpret his complicated compositions.
    While it may be a weird musical mix, Electric Blue is steeped in jazz fusion. Thick grooves are often pushed into open space and back again. "The Dark Frontier" and a cover of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" start off in a rigid jazz structure and then drop into exploratory space, Deninzon's violin wailing away but backed by a solid rock beat. The opening track, "Shock Therapy," jumps off the disc, with the violin ringing like an electric guitar. "Bluzak" has a hard disco beat, accented with Joe Hunter's funky keyboard playing and Deninzon's wah-wah pedal driven effects. And "Acid Rabbits" is more of laid-back traditional jazz.
    Deninzon graduated from Indiana University last spring, and has since enrolled in the jazz program at Manhattan School of Music in New York, but he's maintaining his classical ties via extra course work. He's also recently assembled a band in New York, and has been gigging around the city  as a sideman in an effort to absorb as much as possible. While he hasn't  run into as much resistance as he did in Indiana, he has noticed that a stuffy, hipster mentality permeates much of his music school scene. As someone who strives to be different, Deninzon has trouble relating. He explains that many people in music school are "too wrapped up in following....and doing what everybody expects of you."
    But for Deninzon, going against the standard paradigm is the only way to go.

    For anyone who spent Saturday afternoons as a kid taking music lessons at the insistence of their parents, while their friends got to run around on soccer fields and little league diamonds, there is vindication. Classically trained musicians can be hip, too, and such is the case with East Sider Joe Deninzon. He's played guitar in bands since he was in high school, played all the instruments on an album he recorded in his basement and has been seen most recently performing solo gigs around town with a select group of musicians and friends. And he also plays violin, and has since he was a boy.
    "I grew up in a family of musicians," Deninzon, who plays his custom-made six-string violin, says, " My dad is with the Cleveland Orchestra-he's a violinist and my mom is a piano player, both classical musicians. I studied vioin all my life and when I was a teenager I got into rock and roll and jazz.
    Even as Deninzon's tastes in music began to expand, his love for performing all kinds of music began to grow. So, rather than putting aside his years of classical training to succumb to the rock and roll bug, he worked on both and let one influence his work with the other. "I realized that all this rock stuff that I am into could be done on violin. And one time Michael Stanley saw me play and he asked me to play with his band at a concert they were giving at the Front Row. So I played the show and it went really well and it was the first time I ever did a rock thing on the violin. I realized that a lot of people were into it," he says.
    Deninzon has spent the last four years splitting time between his home in Highland Heights and his studies at Indiana University, writing and performing his own music while picking up his degree in both jazz and classical violin. He's also found time to record his own appropriately titled solo debut LP, COLLAGE, a sampling of the different styles Deninzon had been experimenting with. He's currently working on a new solo disc.
    This time around, Deninzon will have some help behind the boards by the DeMarco Brothers, John and Fred, who've been engineering the project while he records at track House Studios in Lorain. He's also found some local heavies to sign on to the project, including bassist Dallas Coffee of the Swing Lizards, drummer Mark Gonder, saxophonist Kenny Anderson, and keyboardist Joe Hunter.
    "I'm hiring some of the best jazz musicians in Cleveland. I'm into really trippy ambiance music. I'm playing different soundscapes, noise and things. I'm into using effects on my violin. I have a six-string electric violin, and I use guitar effects on it, like distortion, delay and I like to use it with a wah-wah pedal to do a rhythm thing," he says.
    Deninzon, who will be attending the Manhattan School of Music this fall to work on his masters in jazz, admits that the music he's been writing recently probably wouldn't be considered purely jazz.
    "It seems to me right now that the jazz world is just so safe and conservative," he says. "Everyone is so into this cool jazz thing, like Kenny G, and everyone is so nice and suburban and i believe that ugliness in music is a beautiful thing. I like dissonance, I like distortion. I've been listening to the new Radiohead album and Nine Inch Nails and I'm into mixing those kinds of things into my jazz. I like something a little more aggressive, something a little more harsh, I think more for a younger audience."
    While jazz purists might look down their noses at Deninzon's unique approach, a certain quality of jazz that hangs in his music can't be denied.
    "Currently, what I'm doing I wouldn't call jazz'" he explains. "It has a mixture of influences, like hard rock, punk, influences of alternative music and the jazz included, as well, and the  classical music. A lot of people love that intense 70's funk/jazz/rock/blues thing. I love long, improvisational jams. I like keeping the music open to improvisation and experimentation when you're performing live, and not do everything the same way twice.
    With preliminary recording on his new disc almost finished, Deninzon hopes to have the final product out around December. He's been playing solo shows, and shows with members of his backing band all summer, and will be giving a farewell performance of sorts tonight, August 21, at the Rhythm Room, before he leaves for new York.
    "I'm  trying to get more focused in my music right now," Deninzon says. ' I'm billing myself as a solo artist now, but when I get to New York I'd like to join or form a band. And I want to do more with vocals, taking this instrumental thing I'm doing now and make it more into a pop, radio-oriented thing."

    Indiana University boasts one of the most prestigious music schools, and Joe Deninzon is ready to graduate from it, Maybe that's why the violinist, who majored in both classical and jazz studies, feels like he can get away with suggesting the strict regimen of the school ain't all it's cracked up to be.
   "You're teachers always tell you to get this pure, beautiful sound on the violin," he said in the courtyard of Read dormitory, "to make it sing like a human voice. But I believe the violin is capable of a lot of ugly sounds, and my goal in life is to explore them all."
    This certainly isn't the attitude of your everyday orchestral maestro. But Joe decided long ago he wouldn't allow himself to get stuck in one musical rut for long, especially one that might stifle his creativity. 'I like to imitate ladies screaming, cars crashing,...I like to press down on the bow so hard that it sounds like something's being ripped apart.
    Yikes. Why would someone be so abusive to the instrument he's so intimately involved with for so long? "I like to torture the violin," he said with a grin. "It's tortured me all my life, so I've got to get back at it now."
    The almost-IU graduate is getting his revenge by writing rock, jazz, and classically-influenced pop music that combines poignant lyrics with highly impressive instrumental prowess. he already has one cassette release under his belt, 1996's "Collage," and is preparing to record an instrumental album this summer tentatively titled "Shock Therapy" in his hometown of Cleveland. Joe plans to head to the Big Apple for a shot at the big time.
    "Collage" was more me figuring out what I wanted to do," he said, "because it has such a mixture of different styles. People don't really know what to think of it. It was an experiment, my guinea pig. I have acoustic ballads on there, I have straight -ahead swing jazz tunes. I have heavy rockers...it was a bunch of different sounds I was playing with."
    If it weren't for demon  television, Joe might have gone the strictly classical route. his parents-both classically trained musicians themselves-immigrated from Russia, Joe's birthplace. His house was understandably awash with music most of the time, and since it was Russian practice to start young, Joe was given  his first fiddle at age six. So the Deninzons taught their son the trade, and Joe practiced his classical music, and things were going smoothly, until...
    "When I was nine I saw Twisted Sister on MTV and thought, "I wanna be a rock star!" I was corrupted by the American mass media."
    He soon took up the electric guitar and bass to quench the rock-n-roll fire in his belly, and eventually fell in love with jazz after seeing Miles Davis on his final tour. Finally, as a 16-year-old high schooler, the band he was playing guitar in was asked to open for the Michael Stanley Band. Stanley is "Cleveland's Bruce Springsteen," a true hometown hero popular enough in the area to attract more than 20,000 fans to a show.
    "Yeah, I was freaking out," Joe said, "(but) it gave me confidence that this is what I want to do with my life, that I could be pretty good at it." The show went well enough that Joe was asked to sit in on one of Stanley's unplugged gigs-as a vioinist. "I'd never really improvised on the violin. I got such a great response from the crowd and a great review in the local paper. it was sort of a turning point."
    "I realized, he, all this cool rock stuff, I can do it on violin realized this is the direction i wanted to go in." Since then, Joe's main focus has been to bring out the sound he hears from both jazz and rock guitarists on the violin. By using the same equipment a guitarist would, he's been able to close in on his goal of creating "gritty, grimy, heavy, grungy, distorted violin."
    "There's been no violinist who has the kind of sound I'm going for," he said. "I have a sound in my head that I want to try and create. What I like is when a violinist can imitate other instruments, (and) I want to imitate some of the great guitar players like Jimi Hendrix and Steve Vai."
    After acquiring more studio experience with his instrumental summer sessions, NYC is the logical next step. "I knew New York would be the place for me. There's not that many jazz violinists in general, so I feel there are a lot of opportunities in New York for someone who does what I do." While attending the Manhattan School of Music on a jazz scholarship, he'll audition, freelance and hope that he makes the right connections.
    "It's so click-oriented there, you really have to know people. But when I can put all my energies into promoting myself-which was impossible here because I've been practicing all the time-I'll ge results. It's just a matter of persistence."
    So with any luck, Joe will further hone his unique sound and meet enough VIP's to be a part of something special. he may even stumble upon his dream gig. "A band with sort of a pop sound, but at the same time a grungy improvisational fusion thing. With far out electric violin from outer space. Atomic violin."

    When he was four, his professional-musician parents emigrated from the Soviet union. He started playing classical violin at six, and today he is a Jazz Studies/Violin performance major at the IU School of Music. But at he age of 12, Joe Deninzon discovered rock music (including the heavy-metal variety), and he's been trying to reconcile these worlds ever since.
    One result is Collage, the self-released 11-song cassette featuring Deninzon and a supporting cast that includes Monika Hertzig (Beeblebrox), Paul Karaffa (El Nino), Andrew Lazarro and even (unless I'm mistaken) the musicians parents. The musicianship is superb, Deninzon's voice is strong, and the songwriting owes more to Yes or the Who than to the composer's classical training. When the liner notes in Collage thank Frank Zappa, it's for real. When Deninzon mentions Steve Vai and Jimi Hendrix as influences, believe him.

    One way Deninzon has bridged his worlds is with an instrument that is itself a bridge. That instrument is a six-string electric violin custom-made by Eric Jensen. The "wired" sound gives Deninzon options that make his instrument sound a lot like an electric guitar. "I like to play with feedback," he says, and credits Michael Stanley with opening his eyes to the idea of improvising on the chin-held instrument.

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Jean-Luc Ponty's Violin Solo on 'Jig'
Downbeat Magazine. September, 1999
transcription and analysis by Joe Deninzon

    On "Jig'" violinist Jean-Luc Ponty combines a French folk-like theme, rock instrumentation, a stomping groove, and elements of the bebop language as well as folk lines to create a fusion in the full sense of the word. Originally released on Ponty's 1982 album Mystical Adventures (Atlantic), the song appears on Rhino's Le Voyage: the Jean-Luc Ponty Anthology.
    "Jig' is kind of a folkish line I came up with," ponty said in the liner notes to Le Voyage. "It is a hybrid style because it goes from minor third (F natural) to major third (F sharp), which is typical of a style of folk music found in central France all the way back to the middle ages.
    The chord structure of "Jig" is simple and reminiscent of a folk song, consisting of a cycle of G7, F major and D major. There are blues and folk licks interspersed throughout. The repeated 16th-note slide into E in measure 15 as well as the funky, syncopated rhythms in bars 29-30 evoke images of a fiddler playing at a dance and give the solo thematic unity.
    Ponty's trademark use of five-note cells from different modes is evident when he uses an A minor dorian pentatonic pattern (A-B-C-E-F#) over the D chord in the second half of bar 5, creating a myxolydian sound. A similar sound happens in measures 9-10, where the E dorian pentatonic is played over a G7 chord. In bars 11-12, Ponty creates a pentatonic line from the F mixolydian scale (F-G-A-C-E flat). Notice how he avoids the fourth and sixth degree of the scale until the second half of bar 12. Ponty hints at the A minor pentatonic over D major sound from measure 5 again in the first four notes of bar 16, which spell out an A minor arpeggio.
    Ponty's knowledge of the bebop language can be heard in bars 6, 7, 8, 12, and 16. The lines are reminiscent of Charlie Parker's with their chromaticism, angular motion and embellishments. One embellishment occurs on beat three of bar 7, where C natural is preceded by a C# and A natural. Chromatic motion to a chord tone occurs on the second half of beat two in bar 8, where the D natural and D flat lead into C natural (beat three), and in a similar pattern involving the same three notes at the end of measure 12. In the first half of bar 16, where Ponty seems to be going for the A minor over D sound, the G# (the #11 of D major) and the G natural act as passing tones leading to the F# on beat three.
    Note the architectural construction of Ponty's solo through intervallic development and the use of arpeggios. At the solo's beginning, Ponty stays in the middle to lower range of the violin. He ascends to a high B in the form of a G dominant arpeggio in bar (. Ponty doesn't travel below the low G on his five-string electric violin until measure 13, where he dips down to a low C, the lowest note in his range. It isn't until bar 17 that Ponty rises above the B and plays an ascending arpeggio that peaks at a high G above the previous B in a climactic gesture. It's a fine example of dramatic development in a well-constructed solo.

    "Achieving your goals is one of the easiest things you can do, but defining your goals is one of the most difficult things." -James Woods

    There's probably a bunch of journalists that can lay claim to having found electric jazz/metal violinist Joe Deninzon. He's a genuinely friendly person who is interested in other people. He's a gigging musician and knows what he's doing in the marketing department.
    First Joe had to find hometown success, so he used the media as a tool. "I did not want a summer job delivering pizza when I was in college. I wanted paying gigs. In February, I used the newspaper to research all the venues in Cleveland that featured live music. I spent an hour a day calling, sending packages and following up."
    Once he got the gigs, he alerted the media with announcements. Almost every music paper in Cleveland covered Joe. He worked the media because he knew what he wanted.
    Having found hometown success in Cleveland, Joe recorded an album, Electric Blue for the city's Wilbert's Blues Records. Recently the label found national distribution. in 1997, Joe came to New York City to further his career and education at Manhattan School of Music.
    This past summer, Joe sent me a media kit with a cover letter that stated he's seeking management. His kit defined himself as a jazz-metal violinist with a photo that had a boss facial pose, and the word "electric" used just enough to establish his vibe.
    Electric Blue is a very good album that tells a valid musical story, even though Joe is using it -in-part to showcase his work. You can not just make an album to get you to that next level. Fans and critics are savvy enough to know when one is hyping themselves a opposed to creating something meaningful.
    Joe's answering machine announces his up-and-coming gigs; he returns calls in a time-related manner. We chit-chatted about outside interests, but as we talked, he thanked me  for some media leads and asked me why I wasn't interested in working with him, to which i responded "lack of time."
    his lack of management hasn't broken Joe's stride. Since coming to New York, he's entered convention competitions. Though he wasn't selected to play for Cleveland's Undercurrents Festival, he was selected for The Inside Connection's recent New Music Showcase. Joe went on to win the jazz competition which was a mind-blower because he enjoyed other artists on the bill! Joe states, "Take chances, don't doubt yourself and go to conventions. Today I'm going to the Jazztimes convention. Even if I'm not selected to play for a show, I meet people.
    He remembers meeting his first music business contact at Undercurrents. He had given his demo to many people and one woman wrote him a very encouraging letter. "It's hard for musicians to put themselves in the shoes of industry people. i want to let them know I'm active." Now he has to make a lot of follow-up calls.
    Joe credits his longtime roommate, Maury Epstein, a guitarist from Cleveland, as the person who offered advice about marketing and publicity. :Maury suggested that playing with a variety of musicians increases one's circle of industry acquaintances, too." Joe hires great players to work on his concerts. It attracts fans of those players to his shows!
    One of his teachers got Joe hired for Terre Roche's Bottom Line show-he was stoked, and beamed when he heard that Paul Simon was in the audience.
    Joe likes James Woods' quote, "It's easy to say, 'I'm gonna be famous, but there are step-by-step things to do in making it, (which in Joe's case seems to be) making a good living doing what you love, and having a family. I hope if people use that approach, they won't lose their mind."