Violinists - the other six

Carmel Malignaggi  Malignaggi has worked with B B King and several others.

Arnold Eidus (1922-2013) Eidus's father was a Jewish immigrant from Latvia and a violinist. His mother who was born in New York, played piano. A child prodigy, Eidus made his performance debut at Carnegie Hall aged 11. He studied at the Juilliard under Louis Persinger (who also taught Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern and Ruggiero Ricci). He met his future wife, piano student Doris Dresher, at Juilliard.

Eidus was a versatile session accompanist who recorded and performed in the classical, jazz, pop, rhythm & blues and Latin genres. He recorded with Perry Como, Coleman Hawkins, Lena Horne, Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Patti Austin, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Edgar Winter and countless others over a career that spanned six decades. In 1945, as part of the American Broadcasting Corporation's orchestra, he was a featured soloist in a New York recording of Paul Whiteman's re-orchestration of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He recorded his classical repertoire for the RCA Victor, HMV, Phillips, and Stradivari record labels.

In 1946 Eidus became the first American violinist to win the coveted Jacques Thibaud Award in Paris. In the 1950s, he emerged as one of the most sought-after commercial violinists in New York, working in TV, radio and films, on the concert stage and in recording sessions. His classical repertoire included works by Kodály, Beethoven, Elgar, Copland, de Falla, Sibelius, Brahms and others.

In the US, Eidus performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Chicago Symphony under Izler Solomon, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Antal Dorati. In Europe Eidus performed as soloist with the London Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, the Budapest Radio Orchestra, and at other prestigious venues.

Eidus served as Concertmaster for the American Broadcasting Company, performing on and directing a weekly chamber music series.

In 1950, Eidus and cellist George Ricci founded the Stradivari Records label. 

Guy Lumia (1937-1988) Of Italian heritage Lumia began studying violin at the age of seven. In 1948, he was accepted to study at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 1952, he began his studies at the Eastman School of Music, with André de Ribaupierre and Joseph Knitzer, where he graduated with honours, obtaining both his baccalaureate and master's degrees, along with the certificate of performer. and the artist diploma. He also studied with Raphael Bronstein at the Mannes School of Music in New York.

In the 1950s, he was a member of the first violin section of the Rochester Philharmonic while in Eastman. From 1952 to 1966, Lumia was also active with the Greenwich Piano Quartet. Another chamber music activity of the 1960s was the Long Island Chamber Ensemble. In 1961, he was a Fulbright scholar studying with Rene Benedetti in Paris. Lumia was a finalist in the Paganini Violin Competition in Genoa and a semifinalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He later studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He studied more with Yehudi Menuhin in London.

Lumia was a concertmaster with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra . In the early 1970s, he toured Europe as a soloist. In 1973, he joined the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut as a violin professor. In the 1984-1985 season, he was selected as a concertmaster with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he alternated with Raymond Gniewek. He continued with the Met for four seasons. Then, tragically, he died in New York City at just 51 years old due to complications from Type 1 Diabetes mellitus.

Raoul Poliakin (1917-1981) Poliakin was an Egyptian-born American arranger and conductor of popular orchestral music. He appeared on countless albums, including those of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Wes Montgomery.

Born in Cairo, he received his musical education at the Sorbonne, where he studied violin with Rene Benedetti and conducted with Pierre Monteux. In 1941, he emigrated to the United States, where he became a member of several major symphony orchestras, playing under Leopold Stokowski, Sir Thomas Beecham, Fritz Reiner, Monteux and Ernst Ansermet.

As assistant conductor to Andre Kostelanetz, Poliakin produced a series of albums for Everest Records in the 1950s. As overall music director, he planned the classical repertoire and supervised the actual recording sessions. In addition, he conducted his own 54r piece orchestra and twenty voice chorale, The Poliakin Orchestra and Chorale, which recorded arrangements of light orchestral music.

In addition, he was a licensed amateur radio (ham radio) operator under the call sign K2AOS.

Gene Orloff (1922-2009) Orloff was a violinist concertmaster, arranger and contractor. The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from the piano and try to play it. He was only three at the time. By the time he was five, he was playing recitals in his home city of Boston. Later, he was playing concerts at venues which included performances at Carnegie Hall and with the Boston Symphony. Having won a scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Music, he left due to the schedule and found work as a commercial musician and, on occasion, was working for 15 hours per day.

During his time, the artists that Orloff performed with included Meat Loaf, The Bee Gees, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand. His daughter Marcy said that one of his favourites was Van McCoy.

In the late 1940s, he was in Neal Hefti's orchestra on a recording date backing Charlie Parker and with Nat King Cole's trio/The Muleskinners, backing Woody Herman on vocals.

Working under Van McCoy's direction, he handled the arrangements for the horns and strings on the Faith Hope & Charity album by Faith Hope and Charity which was released in 1970. He also played on the Disco Baby album by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony which was released in 1975 and featured "The Hustle". He was also on Judy Collins Judith (1975).

Harry Cykman (1921-1994) Cykman was a child prodigy, making his debut as a violinist in 1930 (at age 9, but for promotional purposes, a year was shaved from his birth date). Despite his classical roots, as a working session musician, Cykman was often heard on jazz recordings, including those of organist Shirley Scott, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, Billie Holiday, and saxophonist Grover Washington, as well as Judy Collins (1975's Judith), composer Don Sebesky and Rupert Holmes (his 1974 debut album, Widescreen).

Violinists - the first six

Frederick Buldrini Buldrini was a Naumburg competition winner in 1936 and parlayed that early success into a fascinating recording career, often gravitating toward jazz projects and frequently playing with the greats. Some of his early recordings include several Frank Sinatra compilations and one with Sarah Vaughan.

In 1965, he worked on the aptly titled Ruth Brown ’65 and helped Milton Nascimento display Courage in 1968. The end of the decade found him in the studio making Round Trip with Phil Woods.

In 1970, he teamed up with Antonio Carlos Jobim on Stone Flower and Tide. In 1975, he was in the strings section for Joe Beck’s self-titled album Beck. A year later, he was in the strings section for John Tropea’s self-titled album and appeared with Bob James.

He has also played with Maynard Ferguson, Earl Klugh, Jimmy Ponder and, interestingly, Thijs van Leer on Nice to Have Met You. He played violin on the soundtrack of The Wiz.

He opened the 1980s by accompanying Aretha Franklin and then Chaka Khan, as well as appearing on the soundtrack of Fame. Another famous female with whom he recorded during this time was Janis Ian. He played too with Spyro Gyra, Luther Vandross and George Benson. He was involved in two quite different projects - Les Miserables and Philip Glass’s three-act opera Satyagraha.

Lewis Eley (d 1998) Violinist with the Long Island Philharmonic whose career as a session musician stretches at least as far back as Perez Prado’s Exotic Suite of the Americas, recorded in 1962.

In the sixties he often accompanied Sarah Vaughan and Wes Montgomery. He also played with Nina Simone and Walter Wanderley.

He didn’t slow down much in the ’70s, working with Jackie DeShannon, Chet Baker, Hank Crawford, Grover Washington, Jr. Bob James, Ralph MacDonald, Carly Simon and Frank Sinatra.

In the 80's he worked with Chaka Khan, Spyro Gyra, Luther Vandross, Stevie Nicks and Joe Jackson. He appeared on a pair of soundtracks from Spike Lee films in 1988 and 1989. In 1989, he also appeared on the Lenny Kravitz album Let Love Rule. One of his last recordings appears to be B B King’s 1991 release, Love Me Tender.

Kathryn Kienke Kienke has played with Janis Ian, Paul Simon, etc

Rosoff

Joseph Malignaggi (1921-1994) American violinist of Italian origin based in New York. Son of the Sicilian violin maker Paul Malignaggi. He was concertmaster and arranger for Frank Sinatra. He has appeared ion albums with B B King, Aretha Franklin, Rupert Holmes, etc.

Elliot Rosoff Rosoff was a violinist and recording engineer. A graduate of New York's Manhattan School of Music and has performed both as a solo recital artist and as an orchestra member. He was also active as a recording engineer and as a music coordinator for a variety of recordings, concerts and venues.

Norman Carr Carr's early credits include Stan Getz’s Focus, recorded and released in 1961. In 1964, he appeared on a pair of Carmen McRae albums. A year later, he was collaborating once again with Stan Getz on the soundtrack of Mickey One. He was in the string section for Godspell in 1973. The same year, he appeared on what could be deemed his most famous recording, playing violin on Gladys Knight & the Pips’ mega-hit, “Midnight Train to Georgia”, which won a Grammy in 1974.

In 1976 he served as concert master and played violin on Earl Klugh’s album, Living inside Your Love, he was in the strings section on O’Donel Levy’s Windows, recorded two albums with Jimmy McGriff, helped Lonnie Smith and Joe Thomas too.

He also worked with Diana Ross and company on the soundtrack of The Wiz. A year later, he appeared on Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy. In 1980, Earth, Wind & Fire employed his services on Faces. The following year, he re-united with Earl Klugh on Crazy for You. In 1984, he was part of the strings section on the Ramsey Lewis-Nancy Wilson collaboration, The Two of Us.

One of his last recordings appears to be the Prince project, The Family, released in 1985.

Instruments used on the album