Take a bow, players

Jazz and the violin have never seemed to be particularly compatible associates. At least not superficially, that is. For most people, the tendency has been to view the instrument in its classical music persona, gathered into large orchestral sections or bathed in the spotlight, dramatically performing one of the many familiar violin concertos.

But the fact is that the violin has been an intrinsic part of jazz virtually since the beginning. Although the instrument’s significant practitioners have been small in number, compared with the legions of saxophonists and trumpeters, there’s no denying the quality of their creative contributions.

Joe Venuti, for example, was an important member of the first great generation of jazz artists in the ‘20s. Stuff Smith may have been an even more exciting rhythmic player. And Stephane Grappelli combined a buoyant, lighthearted, up-tempo style with rhapsodic ballad work.

More recently, players such as Jean Luc Ponty, Regina Carter and Bireli Lagrene, among others, have explored the violin’s jazz potential from myriad perspectives, acoustic and electric.

Add to that list Mark O’Connor, a player whose eclectic skills encompass not just jazz, but also bluegrass, traditional folk and classical music. That’s quite a plateful of styles, but O’Connor, 41, has handled it with remarkable adroitness in a career that reaches from his classical works, such as “Fiddle Concerto No. 1” and “The American Seasons,” to solo violin performances for the soundtracks of the films “The Patriot” and the upcoming “Gods and Generals,” from duets with cellist Yo-Yo Ma to appearances (and recordings) with his swing-oriented trio.

That entity, officially labeled the Hot Swing Trio, is occupying much of O’Connor’s attention in the early months of 2003. His first recording with the ensemble, “In Full Swing” (*** 1/2, Sony Classical) has just been released, and his tour with the trio includes March 14-15 dates at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The album revisits the jaunty, in-the-pocket swing of the man he describes as a primary influence, Grappelli. And the imagery is made even more effective by the presence of guitarist Frank Vignola and bassist Jon Burr, both former associates of Grappelli.

O’Connor doesn’t quite manage the elegance of phrase that made the French violinist so instantly recognizable. But in tunes such as the classic “Limehouse Blues,” “Honeysuckle Rose” and his own pieces written in similar style, “In Full Swing” and “3 for All,” O’Connor adds his own groove-oriented improvising, tinged with elements of the American roots that are intrinsic to all his music.

But there’s another element that makes the recording even more distinctive -- the presence of guests Wynton Marsalis and Jane Monheit. Both are in fine form, with Marsalis dipping into his own early reference points, playing with a big, blowsy sound and a formidable rhythmic drive. And Monheit’s high-kicking spirit fully matching the joie de vivre of her companions.

Christian Howes is a virtual unknown compared with O’Connor, but the Ohio-based violinist, just out of his 20s, has used the ups and downs of a tumultuous life as the stimulus for a genuinely original jazz voice. Sometimes referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of the violin, Howes is comparable to the rock legend primarily in the iconoclastic aspects of his style, and especially when he is playing an electric instrument.

On his latest recording “Jazz on Sale” (***, Khaeon World Music), however, he performs in a completely acoustic setting. Moving from violin to baritone violin, accompanied by Spanish musicians Federico Lechner on piano and Pablo Martin on bass, he delivers a program devoted to jazz classics by Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Bill Evans, peppered with a tune by Lechner and a pair of his own originals.

Kicking off the first track, “Blue Monk,” with a string-grinding, ear-jarring introduction, he risks a quick departure by potential buyers sampling the album on a record store kiosk. Once he gets into his program, he finds a considerably better balance between his soft and hard sides.

Howes spent two years in his early 20s incarcerated for selling LSD. The experience, for all of its difficult aspects, has, he says, brought depth, insight and maturity to his music, qualities that course through his playing in pieces such as Thad Jones’ “A Child Is Born,” Davis’ “Blue in Green” and Evans’ “Very Early.”

Eileen Ivers, like O’Connor, has moved beyond her original roots -- Celtic music, in her case -- into far more expansive creative interests. In “Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul” (***, KOCH), she leads a group that shifts with astonishing ease from hard-driving, soul-style rhythms (enhanced by the gruff vocals of Tommy McDonnell) to more traditional ballads, jigs and reels. Through it all, Ivers’ fiddle playing, enlivened by her improvisational imagination and palpable sense of musical joy, brings everything alive.