In an interview with Lee Jeske in Downbeat magazine in the early 1980's, Mr. Grappelli said that the street musicians of Paris were his main inspiration.By the time he was 15, Mr. Grappelli was playing professionally. He died in Paris on December 1, 1997. A slight stroke in 1993 forced him to cancel one month of performances, and in 1994 he had surgery to replace an artery in his neck, which kept him off the stage for two months.He is survived by a daughter, Evelyne, and a grandson, Gilles.For the most part, Mr. Grappelli spent time on the road with his trio. When he was 12, Mr. Grappelli received his first violin and, with his father, began to study classical music informally.
He agreed to appear with Mr. Menuhin on British television, an event that resulted in a series of recordings. Stephane Grappelli, the elfin, witty and urbane jazz violinist best known for his role in founding the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, died yesterday in a Paris clinic. The other band members returned to France, and the war essentially destroyed the ensemble for good; there were periodic attempts to bring it together again, but in 1953 Reinhardt died.That didn't stop Mr. Grappelli, who once said that he was like a shark; he had to keep moving. French Jazz Violinist Stephane Grappelli Dead At 89 By Lee Yanowitch PARIS (Reuters) - French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, whose lively, elegant style captivated audiences for more than a half a century, died in Paris Monday after undergoing a hernia operation.
Grappelli was born at Hôpital Lariboisière in Paris, France, and christened with the name Stéfano.
He is an inductee of the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. And at various times he brought together groups based on the instrumentation of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.Among his albums are ''Live at Carnegie Hall,'' ''Jazz 'Round Midnight,'' ''Plays Jerome Kern,'' ''Tivoli Gardens,'' ''Satin Doll,'' ''Stardust,'' ''For Django'' and ''Plays Gershwin.
Stephane Grappelli was born on January 26, 1908, in Paris, where by the age of 15 he was playing the violin in the streets, at restaurants, and with a theater pit band. During the 1950's and 60's he regularly toured Europe and Australia and spent five years at the Paris Hilton. All his long career, Stephane Grappelli maintained an effortless balance between art and entertainment.
''It is like the juggler who throws his pots and plates to the wind and yet retrieves them every time.
They recorded some titles in London with the "English Quintette" during January and February 1946 for EMI and Decca, using a rhythm section consisting of English guitarists Jack Llewelyn and Alan Hodgkiss together with the Jamaican jazz bassist Throughout the 1950s, Grappelli made occasional visits to the recording studio, but the opportunities for a swing violinist of his generation were becoming limited; despite attempts to modernise his style, Grappelli was never particularly interested in the In April 1973, Grappelli performed with great success during a week at Grappelli played on hundreds of recordings, including sessions with Grappelli made a cameo appearance in the 1978 film Grappelli continued touring with great success up to the last year of his life; in 1997, although his health was by now poor, he toured the United Kingdom in March and then played concerts in Australia and New Zealand, giving his last public performance in In May 1935 Grappelli had a brief affair with Sylvia Caro that resulted in a daughter named Evelyne.
He performed in clubs and restaurants, usually playing piano because violinists were not in great demand. The latter, Italian spelling, is now used almost universally when referring to the violinist, including reissues of his early work.
A self-taught violinist, Grappelli came into his own with a style mixing
He attended the Paris Conservatory but soon encountered jazz and left school behind to begin his lifelong fascination with jazz improvisation. He went on to record with young jazz musicians including Gary Burton and Jean-Luc Ponty. He died on December 1, 1997 in Paris. Hugues Panassie, a jazz critic and producer, had been supportive, and the group called itself the Quintet of the Hot Club of France after Panassie's recently established organization of French jazz fans.The next January, the group went into the studio to record ''Dinah,'' ''I Saw Stars,'' ''Tiger Rag'' and ''Sweet Sue,'' with instrumentation of several guitars including Mr. Reinhardt, a bass and Mr. Grappelli on violin.
Father and daughter were reunited in 1946 when Evelyne travelled to London from France to stay with Grappelli for about a year.Grappelli died in Paris on 1 December 1997, suffering heart failure after a series of minor cerebral attacks.
In 1997, Grappelli received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Grappelli was born in Paris to parents of French and Italian descent. He absorbed the artistry of Louis Armstrong, along with that of Bix Beiderbecke and the violinist Joe Venuti.
Five years later he played Carnegie Hall.In 1972, Mr. Grappelli embarked on a series of recording and concerts that brought him a much larger audience. In 1969 he made his first appearance in the United States at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, where his performance was drowned out by the first of several riots by drunken college students that eventually shut down the festival.
Stephane Grappelli, violinist: born Paris 26 January 1908; died Paris 1 December 1997.
''I know of no other violinist with that extraordinary command of improvising in the jazz medium,'' said Yehudi Menuhin, who recorded with Mr. Grappelli. Stephane Grappelli, the elfin, witty and urbane jazz violinist best known for his role in founding the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, died yesterday in a Paris clinic. His funeral, on 5 December, took place at the In 1934, at a cafe in southern France, he encountered the Belgian gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt. Reinhardt soon brought in his brother, Joseph, also a guitarist, to join them.