One of the great treasures of my jazz collection is a long out-of-print album titled Duke Ellington’s Jazz Violin Session, featuring Ray Nance and Stephane Grappelli dueting string-style on such classic Ellingtonia as “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “In a Sentimental Mood,” and “Take the `A’ Train.” For those that never considered the violin a suitable instrument for jazz, think again. Or ask San Antonio’s Sebastian Campesi, who’s been playing jazz on said instrument for 72 of his 76 years.
“People don’t think of the violin, but it can do everything,” says Campesi. “The nice thing is that it’s such a intimate instrument; you hold it under your chin. When you play it, you caress it, and if you treat it nice it treats you nice.”
Campesi should know. Having had legendary string master Joe Venuti as his mentor, and later playing with everyone from Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, and Tony Bennet to Miles Davis, Emil Petty, and Chet McIntyre, Campesi has spent a lifetime getting intimate with his violin. Born in New York, Campesi settled in San Antonio in the Fifties after a brief stationing stint there in the army and many a one-night jazz stand. Raising a family, Campesi taught in local schools in the day, and played with the San Antonio Symphony at night.
“But I played [jazz] every night I wasn’t playing with the symphony,” interjects Campesi. “Many nights I went up to Austin and played with their orchestra and Erza Rachlin — that was way back in the Sixties.”
Still, Campesi is not exactly a household name here in Austin, nor are jazz-playing violinists for that matter. The only two that come to mind, besides local Will Taylor, are, hmm, Nance and…
“Grappelli because he’s outlived the others,” says Campesi. “There just aren’t any, really. There’s Claude Williams, and he’s in his 90s. It’s a rare thing, which is a shame. It’s such a beautiful instrument.”
— Raoul Hernandez
This article appears in June 6 • 1997 and June 6 • 1997 (Cover).