Stephane Grappelli/Joe Pass - Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark

By the time the 71-year-old Stephane Grappelli made this live trio recording with guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, his legacy as the greatest of all jazz violinists was firmly in place. Granted, that made him first in a fairly short line of colleagues -- other than Joe Venuti and Stuff Smith, who else was there to consider? (Jean-luc Ponty doesn't count.) But it's hard to imagine another player, regardless of virtuosity, ever conveying the same sense of swing and simple joie de vivre that Grappelli does with virtually every note. Read More