Jenny Scheinman
We’re sorry, this concert is sold out! Please call (858) 454-5872 to inquire about tickets at the door.
Saturday, July 30, 2022
7:30 PM
The series concludes on Saturday, July 30, with the Jenny Scheinman Quintet. Scheinman is a singer, fiddle player, and songwriter. She makes a return visit to Athenaeum, having performed in summer 2019 with Parlour Game, co-led with Allison Miller. She has been on numerous Grammy-winning recordings and has been one of the top violinists in the DownBeat Critics Poll for over a decade.
Scheinman has released ten albums of original music and has worked closely with a wide range of jazz and Americana artists, including Jason Moran, Bill Frisell, Madeleine Peyroux, Nels Cline, Ron Miles, Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones, and Lou Reed. In her latest quintet she presents music she wrote in the wilderness of northern California during the shutdown.
This drumless ensemble revels in full acoustic resonance and draws on Scheinman’s early string influences, such as John McLaughlin on Shakti, Django Reinhardt, and Wild West cinema. The band also features a few of her older compositions in celebration of 25 years of band leading and a return to the stage after 2 years of Covid hibernation.
Her all-star crew includes Dee Dee Bridgewater’s pianist Carmen Staaf, Grammy-winning bassist Todd Sickafoose, who co-created the hit musical Hadestown, and alto saxophonist Beth Schenck and guitarist Matt Wrobel, whose 20-year duo collaboration pushes the band's extrasensory perception to the brink of the unthinkable.
The New York Times wrote, “Scheinman [has] a distinctive vision of American music, suffused with plainspoken beauty and fortified all at once by country, gospel and melting-pot folk, along with jazz and the blues.”
The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each concert. Masks are optional. Proof of vaccination or negative test within 48 hours of the event is required. Event capacity is limited to 70% for now.
AN INTERVIEW WITH JENNY SCHEINMAN
Athenaeum: I understand you grew up in Petrolia in Humboldt County, California. How does your song “Sleep Rider” on the Parlour Game album (2019, Royal Potato Family) evoke the feeling of growing up in that environment?
Jenny Scheinman: I grew up on a homestead in the coastal northern California wilderness. Off grid. With hippie parents that knew more about Trotsky than chicken feed. Nonetheless they put me on a horse when I was three years old, and by the time I started school they told me to ride. I rode to and from school till the end of high school, and in the winters when it was dark and cold, I’d sleep all the way home. "Sleep Rider" is a dream piece about that.
A: How do you juggle playing in two different music worlds: folk and jazz?
JS: All music is folk music. After a year of jazz, I start missing words, then go running to the folk scene for a blast of direct connection, then start feeling like everything is too obvious and head back to jazz.
A: How did you decide to record with Royal Potato Family Records?
JS: Best label yet! I can call the head of the label and he picks up the phone. So simple! So fun! Kevin Calabro is rad!
A: How does an indie-jazz artist navigate a world with mainstream jazz groups at venues such as Newport Jazz?
JS: The jazz world is so small. I try not to think of any subcategories and sub-genres. We have to stick together! And I was close with George [Wein, founder of the festival], so the festival felt hospitable. Little known fact—his best friend was Pete Seeger [with him he founded Newport Folk Festival].
A: How is your bowing technique while playing folk music different from that when playing jazz?
JS: No difference there. I just try to make everything I do start from the rhythm.
A: You played with Allison Miller at the Athenaeum a few years ago. How did playing here compare with other venues?
JS: Ooh, I love the Athenaeum. That was a favorite gig on that tour. We were fried when we arrived, but Dan’s hospitality and professionalism turned us around, restored us, and set us up for a transformative show.
A: Would you perform with Iris Dement?
JS: Sure. Got a gig? I love her.
A: Among your other classes you offer on your website, you have a class called Chill. What can you say about it?
JS: Chill is a class that is offered through the organization that manages my lessons. It’s basically a way of giving all musicians (and people) a chance to study with artists such as myself. So I’ve spent some hours with playwrights, poets, therapists, and non-violinists who just want to talk about their process, get some feedback, etc.
A: You have some impressive relatives. How did their accomplishments influence your goals in life?
JS: I have some famous relatives. Inspiring social activists, inventors, and philosophers. For the most part they all followed through with their creative ideas against a backdrop of skepticism and even ridicule. Inspiring. Tough. Visionaries! I also have rampant dysfunction, drug addiction, and mental illness in my family. A family of extremes.