West Stockbridge — The Tanglewood crowd roared its approval of Jeremy Kittel’s music during Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble concert on August 7, 2016. Funny thing is, the young fiddler didn’t appear on the Shed stage that night. Instead, it was Kittel’s arrangement of the Largo from Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” that brought the crowd to its feet. For everyone at Tanglewood, the piece served as a winning introduction to Kittel’s music. But just wait till they hear him play the fiddle on Friday, November 18, at the 1854 Town Hall in West Stockbridge.
When it comes to virtuosic fiddling, U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion Jeremy Kittel easily separates the men from the boys. He also separates the merely great Celtic fiddlers from a tiny contingent of players who’ve mastered multiple violin genres — bluegrass (and its innumerable subgenres), gypsy, classical, jazz — and incorporated them into a new body of original compositions.
Below is a video of the Jeremy Kittel Trio playing Kittel’s arrangement of the Bach Partita No. 3:
Generations of worthy Celtic fiddle champions preceded Kittel before he took the title from his distinguished elders more than a decade ago. But, out of all those accomplished players, you can count on one hand the number of champion Celtic fiddlers who are also champion jazz improvisers. You’ll run out of names before you run out of fingers.
If you follow the modern acoustic music scene even casually, then you’ve heard of people like Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Mark O’Connor, and the director of Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop, Mike Block. Kittel has worked with all of these people, as well as with symphony orchestras and classical artists like cellist Yo Yo Ma and composer William Bolcom. Block calls Kittel “one of the leading improvising violinists of his generation” and “one of the foremost of a new breed of fiddlers and violinists.”
Below is a video of Kittel and his trio on A Prairie Home Companion performing “At Home in the World,” a tribute to slain journalist — and accomplished violinist — Daniel Pearl:
Clearly, players in Kittel’s league are uncommon. But great musicians tend to gravitate toward one another, and that’s the case with the Jeremy Kittel Trio, which includes guitarist Quinn Bachand and mandolinist Joshua Pinkham, both of whom are sensational wunderkinds in their own right. Kittel’s trio is an all-star band, with all three members taking turns upstaging one another in live performances.
Quinn Bachand is best known as a player of Celtic music, but he’s also an accomplished jazz musician and knows his way around the banjo and fiddle. Joshua Pinkham, according to mandolin legend David Grisman, is “one of the most important young improvisers on the acoustic scene today,” and, in their review of Pinkham’s CD, “Solo Mandolin Duets,” Mandolin Magazine called Pinkham “the future of the mandolin.”
You can preview Jeremy Kittel’s new album project here:
Who: The Jeremy Kittel Trio
Where: 1854 Town Hall, 9 Main St., West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
When: Friday, November 18th, 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $25 at the door (cash or check) includes a reception with the musicians after the show.
