The violin has given us at most...

The violin has given us at most a dozen significant contributors in the 70-year history of recorded jazz. Many of the giants have left us--Joe Venuti, Eddie South, Stuff Smith, Ray Nance--but a few survivors retain the perennial values, while the very few recent arrivals grope for a sound and style. Nowhere is this more evident than in the two albums reviewed below:

“STEPHANE GRAPPELLI PLAYS JEROME KERN.” GRP 9542 (CD) or 1032 (LP). Most cuts on Grappelli’s new recording find the veteran violinist accompanied sensitively and unobtrusively by a string ensemble. His ability to ad lib is in no way inhibited. He plays the verses to “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” (this and “Why Do I Love You” are excluded from the LP version) and “All the Things You Are.” He doubles briefly on piano for “Long Ago and Far Away,” and experiments with “Ol’ Man River” by starting out backed only by drums, later modulating upward for added excitement. It’s vintage Grappelli, and the orchestral setting is a rare plus factor. 4 1/2 stars.

“SONYA.” Sonya Robinson. Columbia FC 40251. Sonya Robinson is gorgeous; she was Miss Black America; she plays violin; she has the endorsements of Wynton Marsalis and Miles Davis. What more can you want? Plenty. Ironically, Robinson represents everything Marsalis has opposed, verbally and in his music. She comes equipped with keyboards, synthesizers, drum programming, congas and tightly tailored charts composed and arranged by Jean Paul Bourelly. Her solos sound more prepared than spontaneous, though she comes close to establishing a loose groove on the final cut, “Sun-Smile.” A legitimate sound and good intonation are admirable traits; however, she has a limited concept of jazz improvisation. But watch: Given her credentials and backers, Sonya will soar on the charts. For the cover photo, 5 stars; for the music, 2 stars.

“TONY BENNETT JAZZ.” Columbia C 2 40424. This two-LP set could have made a great single disc, simply by eliminating most of the early cuts. On the 1957 “Let’s Face the Music,” for example, Bennett’s intonation was shaky and the arrangement dully derivative. By the 1960s, he was (as “When Lights Are Low” makes eloquently clear) more secure and confident. The best tunes are those on which he is backed by his pianist, Ralph Sharon, alone or with a small group. There are four good 1964 songs with Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones, and a memorable “Sweet Lorraine” with Joe Marsala on clarinet and Bobby Hackett on, of all things, a ukulele. Cover credits are absurdly misleading: Zoot Sims has only one 30-second solo; Nat Adderley has none at all; neither does Al Cohn, though he gets billing, while Art Blakey, who is very prominent on “Just One of Those Things,” doesn’t. The Basie band supports Bennett on two tunes, but it’s not the Count on piano, it’s Sharon, yet Sharon too is unbilled. 3 stars.

“MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION.” Valery Ponomarev. Reservoir 701 (276 Pearl St., Kingston, N.Y. 12401). The Soviet-born, Clifford Brown-inspired trumpeter, who lost little time between leaving Moscow and joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (with whom he toured from 1976-80), makes a commendable debut as leader, with a hot, Blakey-style international group: the splendid black English saxophonist Ralph Moore, Japanese pianist Hideki Takao, and two Americans, Dennis Irwin on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. Ponomarev pays a tribute to his idol in “I Remember Clifford”; the other five cuts are his own well-crafted compositions. Aptly, he calls his quintet Universal Language. Well spoken, it has an Esperanto-like effect. 4 stars.

“BRIDGEWORK.” Billy Higgins. Contemporary 14024. Two hard-hitting quartets: a 1980 group with pianist Cedar Walton and the too rarely heard Texas tenor star, James Clay; and a 1986 unit with Walton and Harold Land. The drummer-leader is well displayed in a duet with (and by) Land, “The Theme.” Bassist Buster Williams wrote the intriguing “Decepticon.” Of the two ballad tracks, “Old Folks,” from the Clay date, works well, but 11 minutes of “I Hear a Rhapsody,” with Land not at his best, is too much. 3 stars.

“THE SAXOPHONE SHOP.” The Saxophone Choir. Soul Note 1129. This group comprises eight saxophones (according to the listing) or nine (if you believe the notes) and a rhythm section. Odean Pope is the composer, arranger and main soloist (on tenor). The fiery-furnace feeling of Pope, and the intense cross rhythms backing him, are heard to advantage in “Muntu Chant.” “Elixir” offers ingenious writing, piano and bass solos. Pope’s use of multiphonics and tendency to musical logorrhea lead to some inchoate moments, but the concept is adventurous and the execution generally commendable. 3 1/2 stars.