On Inquatica: All About Jazz Review:   "Radiant, transporting and with a beauty which reveals more of itself with each repeated playing, Inquatica is a second masterpiece..." –Chris May, All About Jazz, October 2008   All About Jazz Interview Excerpt:   John Ettinger: Broken Pedals and an Open Mind –Paul Olson, All About Jazz, March 6 2007   Press Quotes: On Kissinger In Space: AllMusic:   "...Accessible and concise if full of constant surprises. It takes a few listens to fully apreciate this diverse and colorful music for it follows its own intriguing logic. Recommended." –Scott Yanow, AllMusic.com, 2006   DownBeat Magazine:   "Free improvization and modern composition are among the hallmarks of Kissinger In Space, John Ettinger’s fine sophomore release." 3 1/2 stars. –Eric Fine, DownBeat Magazine, March 2007   Cadence Magazine:   "This quartet makes a great sound...If you are looking for jazz that is new and different, but totally approachable, this is a great find." –Phillip McNally, Cadence Magazine, February 2007   All About Jazz Review:   "...Here, without fanfare or special treatment, [the violin] fits right into a high-grade piano-less quartet — displacing easily as much weight as tenor saxophone, bass or drums, and proclaiming Ettinger as a distinctive and top-drawer new voice in the music. ...An auspicious release...and a new benchmark for creative jazz violin." –Chris May, All About Jazz, September 2006   All About Jazz Best of 2006 Critics Lists:   Michael Ricci, publisher: Publisher's Picks: 2006 Top Picks Paul Olson: Best of 2006 Nils Jacobson: Best of 2006 Chris May: Best of 2006 Go to Top Signal To Noise Magazine:   "...As Ettinger and Malaby spiral around one another you can hear each instrument borrowing qualities from its counterpart: it’s particularly intriguing to hear Malaby shifting towards a light sound and edgeless, long-lined lyricism rarely heard in his work elsewhere. The shorter pieces are beautifully pared down: a track like "The Observer" emerges as a single unbroken utterance that takes the track’s entire length to make its point. The best pieces, though, are the longest and most unpredictable ones. The freeboppish "Quaint" is one of the album’s most exciting tracks, though it keeps circling back to a hushed, secretive core; the sadder-but-wiser lyricism of "Harper Lee" twists between dark and light, eliciting some of Ettinger’s most rapt, flowing violin; while the rock and roll thrash of the title cut turns into a mysterious plunge into the cosmos." –Nate Dorward, Signal To Noise Magazine, Winter 2007, Issue #44 Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Signal to Noise Magazine and Nate Dorward.   Contra Costa Times:   "SPEAKING OF IMPRESSIVE ALBUMS...Violinist John Ettinger released the intriguing, unsettling and occasionally confounding session of original compositions "Kissinger in Space," with powerhouse tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola..." –Andrew Gilbert, Contra Costa Times, January 11, 2007   Bowed Radio:   "...In all honesty, I don’t believe I’ve heard anyone play the violin like John does here...He truly takes the conventions of the violin to a new level – and frankly I hope it catches on." –Bowed Radio, Mark Allender, Episode 49   Go to Top On August Rain: Downtown Music Gallery - New York:   "...Whenever I've played this disc in the store, someone inevitably asks who it is and ends up buying a copy...Both the writing and playing here are consistently inspired." –BLG   All About Jazz   "...The secret in this case is John Ettinger, violinist and looper and effects man, sharing the stage with electric piano, bass, and drums. He has a way of popping in and out at opportune times to build a melody out of a groove, establish a specific mood, or carry on a burst of lyricism. The loops swirl all the time. –Nils Jacobson, All About Jazz Go to Top   All Music Guide: John Ettinger, a versatile violinist based in the San Francisco Bay area, has in the past played with rock and avant-garde groups so he has a very open style. On Kissinger In Space, he mixes together lyrical melodies with free playing while emphasizing catchy yet unpredictable rhythms, close interplay with tenor-saxophonist Tony Malaby, group improvising and quirky themes that take their time to develop...the music is fairly accessible and concise if full of constant surprises. It takes a few listens to fully apreciate this diverse and colorful music for it follows its own intriguing logic. Recommended. –Scott Yanow, AllMusic.com Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All Music Guide and Scott Yanow. Go to Top All About Jazz Review of Inquatica With practically no warning, violinist John Ettinger burst out of the San Francisco Bay area scene and towards national cult status in 2006 with Kissinger In Space (Ettinger Music, 2006). The album-made with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola-announced Ettinger as a thrilling new voice in creative jazz and made an irrefutable case for the violin as a heavyweight frontline instrument. Kissinger went on to become an AAJ Publisher’s Pick and figured in several best-of lists compiled by AAJ contributors at the end of the year. Inquatica is likely to cause another sensation. The album is an extension of the groove Ettinger established on Kissinger-by turns tumultuous, ruminative, pretty and rocking, and magically lyrical-but within a new paradigm. This time, instead of a quartet, he’s working with just one other musician, drummer Pete Forbes, and has exchanged a conventional theme/solos/theme construct for a set which is 99% improvised, with tracks which, in the main, unfold in a non-linear, non-narrative fashion. In a further departure, Ettinger is once again foregrounding the use of loops-scaled back on Kissinger in favor of unprocessed acoustic violin-which he introduced with his first album, August Rain (Self Produced, 2003). Miraculously, given the general absence of pre-written tunes and the almost wholly improvised playing, Inquatica is as accessible as its predecessor. Only a couple of tracks have tunes in the traditional sense-one of these is the disc’s sole cover, a lovely reading of Hoagy Carmichael’s "Stardust"-but Ettinger’s melodicism is as acute in improvisation as it is in composition, and this makes for an immediate connection with the listener. His rhythmic vocabulary also remains potent. Forbes gets behind a drum kit to play beat-centric motor rhythms on only a handful of tracks, but the oscillating rhythms provided by Ettinger’s loops offer another seductive pulse. Ettinger winningly defies the geeky, mechanistic approach adopted by many loopists, instead creating motifs, themes, counterpoint, drones, departure points and collages which sound organic and intuitive. Unusually, this is technology at the service of creative music making rather than music enslaved to technological obsession. Ettinger’s loops function as active and engaged instruments rather than discrete electronic effects, on occasion-like on the opening "Dancing With The Other Side" and the title track-functioning just like another player, moving and changing through the tracks. It’s an approach which dispels any lingering doubts about loop-laden music. There are tracks, too, like "Stardust" and the vaguely Celtic closer "Film," on which Ettinger’s violin is basically acoustic, using only subtle pedal effects. Between them, Ettinger and Forbes add acoustic or electric piano to seven tracks, and Forbes a banjo, played like some alchemical cross between a mandolin and a koto, to two. Ettinger also plays thumping bass on "Layers," with "High Coup" and "Swim" one of three rock-out tracks which recall the title track from Kissinger. Radiant, transporting and with a beauty which reveals more of itself with each repeated playing, Inquatica is a second masterpiece from an astonishing new star. –Chris May, All About Jazz, October 2008 Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2008 All About Jazz and Chris May. Go to Top All About Jazz Interview Excerpt John Ettinger: Broken Pedals and an Open Mind "Although violinist John Ettinger’s been a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene since he moved to the region from Arizona in 1992, he was by no means a household name even on the West Coast and was virtually unknown elsewhere. That state of relative obscurity made his recorded debut as a bandleader, August Rain (Ettinger Music, 2003) a wonderful surprise. Simply put, the album was great -who was this guy? August Rain’s compositions-all but one Ettinger’s own pieces-had fascinating, memorable structures, and their supple, sharp improvisations always seemed informed by the compositional materials. It certainly didn’t hurt that Ettinger had surrounded himself with bassist Todd Sickafoose, drummer Scott Amendola and Rhodes player Art Hirahara-all outstanding Bay Area players who seemed deeply committed to and wisely understanding of his compositions. Best of all, the CD sounded both old and new at the same time. The tunes had the structural soundness and inside/outside vitality of modern jazz, while Ettinger’s digital loops and Amendola’s loops, and the organic eclecticism of where the music was allowed to go (into rock-inflected areas, certainly, but ultimately anywhere the musicians cared to take it) had the bracing flavor of something altogether new. It seemed like it was time to chalk another one up to "those West Coast cats" as Ettinger joined the ranks of vital, fascinating Pacific-side players producing great new music-players like guitarist Nels Cline, clarinet player Ben Goldberg and the aforementioned Amendola. Which isn’t to suggest that Ettinger’s music bears that much resemblance to Cline’s, or Amendola’s, or Sickafoose’s, or any other San Francisco- or Los Angeles-based musician. It’s its own animal. In any case, he’s a technically-skilled, imaginative violin player who balances his fondness for loops pedals with a dry, laconic delivery and almost vibrato-free tone that blended marvelously on August Rain with the other three players on the session. Ettinger’s follow-up CD, Kissinger in Space-released in late 2006, again on his own Ettinger music imprint-more than solidifies his reputation. If it’s no better than August Rain, it’s just as good, and best of all, it’s different. Drummer Amendola is, once again, an enormous force in the music, but Hirahara’s Rhodes has been replaced with the tenor saxophone of New Yorker Tony Malaby. In place of Sickafoose is bassist Devin Hoff; in place of August Rain’s individual soloing is a greater focus on solo counterpoint. The digital loops are considerably less prevalent. If the music is of a more somber beauty than August Rain, it’s no less magnificent, and the CD was one of last year’s very best recordings. Ettinger’s recorded accomplishments are all the more remarkable when one considers the fact that, due to the responsibilities of raising a family, he doesn’t even work full-time these days as a musician. I spoke with him about the new CD, his fellow players like Malaby, Amendola and Hoff, his thoughts on the violin and the West Coast music scenes, and more." –Paul Olson, published: March 6, 2007 Read the interview. Go to Top All About Jazz Review "Rarely the ringmaster and more often the performing seal, the violin has never been a member of the jazz lineup's inner circle. From Stuff Smith’s congenial swing through Ornette Coleman’s excruciating scratchings, it has instead orbited colourfully around the margins, at best providing exoticism, at worst attention-seeking novelty. The closest the fiddle ever got to the beating heart of things was probably with Stephane Grappelli in the Hot Club de France in the 1930s. 59-year-old Billy Bang aside, precious few players of substance have since come forward. Listening to John Ettinger’s muscular and weighty Kissinger In Space, you wonder why. Most likely it’s because the violin comes with a truckload of uncool conservatoire associations: ranks of penguin-suited automatons sitting cowed by the conductor’s baton, and not a reefer in sight. (Only a few people today know Smith’s 1936 recording ’Here Comes The Man With The Jive,’ and most of them have short-term memory loss). Whatever the reason, the violin’s isolation is undeserved. Here, without fanfare or special treatment, it fits right into a high-grade piano-less quartet-displacing easily as much weight as tenor saxophone, bass or drums, and proclaiming Ettinger as a distinctive and top-drawer new voice in the music. Still little known outside the San Francisco area, Ettinger shines alongside his three more celebrated colleagues – Tony Malaby (saxophone), Devin Hoff (bass), and Scott Amendola (drums). He gets something of a boost through looping and post-production, but no more than Amendola. Electronic manipulation is sparingly used (considerably less than on Ettinger’s 2003 debut, August Rain), and the title track and Amendola’s showcase ’The Doors Are Closing’ aside, post-production supports rather than shapes events. By turns joyous and autumnal, pensive and funked up, lyrical and beat-driven, on the page and off it, all sometimes within the course of the same tune, Ettinger’s music blends precisely arranged through-composition with unfettered collective improvisation. It’s utterly distinctive stuff, and amongst its chief joys is the remarkable symbiosis between Ettinger and Malaby, whose close sonic fit and dual-drive improvised lines are the disc’s dominant presence. Amendola’s subtly groovalicious drums are another source of delight. Most of the tracks (there are nine, averaging about six minutes each) are composed of mini-movements: the eight-minute title track, for instance, moves through five distinct sections, from tender to tribal. Only one tune, ’Quaint,’ is built around a traditional soloist-plus-rhythm section template. At any given moment, there’s always at least one person improvising and almost always at least one person playing something written. The music is in a permament transitive state-and its evolution is thrilling and engrossing to witness. An auspicious release from a real-life emergent star, and a new benchmark for creative jazz violin." –Chris May, All About Jazz, September 2006 Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All About Jazz and Chris May. Go to Top Cadence Magazine: "The combination of John Ettinger’s violin and Tony malaby’s tenor sax on Kissinger In Space is as beautiful as it is unusual. Malaby, of course, is becoming a star now, and deservedly so. But Ettinger finds in the saxophonistt an exceptionally sensitive partner. They meld when they need to, and play counterpoint as well. Malaby here favors the upper register of his sax when he wants to blend with the violin, and stretches over the whole range of the instrument when he solos. And then there is Scott Amendola, one of the ablest and brightest drummers we have, adding all his colors. This quartet makes a great sound. The compositions are all by Ettinger, and they are all intriguing and diverse, swinging at times and at times finding free abstraction. But his "Harper Lee" is a good example of how he works. It opens with much stillness and abstraction, with lots of plucking and Amendola’s mbira creating space. Then the violin and tenor sax sing together an achingly beautiful melody that evolves through both their following solow, until the piece descends delicately into silence again. If you are looking for jazz that is new and different, but totally approachable, this is a great find." –Phillip McNally, Cadence Magazine, February 2007 Go to Top DownBeat Magazine "Free improvisation and modern composition are among the hallmarks of Kissinger In Space, John Ettinger’s fine sophomore release. Ettinger, a San Francisco Bay Area violinist, shares the front line with the tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby in a piano-less quartet. The ensemble provides the harmonic freedom for this disjointed but ultimately satisfying music. Ettinger and Malaby complement one another in spite of the differences in the range and tembre of their instruments. Six of Ettinger’s nine originals clock in at five minutes or under; the solos neither drift nor ramble. The album hits its stride on the title song, which flies out of the gate stoked by an uptempo rock beat. After the rhythm section drops out, the forward motion gives way toa trance-like swirl of violin, saxophone and electronics. "Quaint" is one of several tunes beginning with an African-flavored ostinato played by bassist Devin Hoff. The quartet soon leaves the pocket behind, and Ettinger and Malaby blow their most intense solos of the session. "Talking Leaves" showcases Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola, while "The Doors Are Closing" features neither improvisation nor a dramatic climax. The composition, however, does capture the depth and immediacy of chamber music." –Eric Fine, DownBeat – March, 2007 Go to Top Bowed Radio "John Ettinger starts off the show with his free-jazz exploration "Dual Diagnosis" from his latest disc Kissinger In Space. In all honesty, I don’t believe I’ve heard anyone play the violin like John does here — his playing is raw and wild, totally abandoning the "sweetness" of tone that marks Stephane Grappelli’s playing for example. On this tune (and on others on the disc) he phrases in and out with tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby — and often it is difficult to tell them apart. He truly takes the conventions of the violin to a new level – and frankly I hope it catches on." –Bowed Radio, Mark Allender, Episode 49 Go to Top Downtown Music Gallery review of August Rain. "Featuring John Ettinger on violin, loops & processing, Art Hirahara on Fender Rhodes electric piano, Todd Sickafoose on acoustic bass and Scott Amendola on drums & loops. This is an earlier (2003) release by Bay Area-based violinist, John Ettinger, than the fine disc that we listed and reviewed last week. Although the drummer is the same, we find another fine in-demand bassist here, Todd Sickafoose, plus a great electric pianist replacing saxist Tony Malaby. What is most interesting is that this disc sounds much different from the new one. The newer disc is more laid-back and cerebral, this, the older CD is more intense and over-the-top at times. "Shunyata" opens with dark and dreamy sound but soon sails off into a quietly intense near-fusion piece with some superb violin and electric piano lines swirling tightly together. I was reminded of the great band Fourth Way from the late sixties/early seventies, also Bay Area-based and with the same instrumentation. What makes this disc so amazing is the spirited interplay between the violin and electric piano and formidable rhythm team backing. The title track has a great groove and swell melody that just stick with you once you hear it. Todd's fat acoustic bass starts "Dogleg" with sumptuous, oft-kilter funky groove. Whenever I've played this disc in the store, someone inevitably asks who it is and ends up buying a copy. Ace drummer, Scott Amendola, begins "Lead a Normal Life" with an earthy thumb-piano line, subtle percussion and some fine plucked bass and violin. Both the writing and playing here are consistently inspired, too bad it took us so long to find out about this unrecognized gem. Now it is your turn to give some credit where credit is due, or the same thing might happen to you." – BLG Go to Top All About Jazz - Review of August Rain "Let’s be honest. The best thing about what critics do is that we get the chance to listen to new music more or less constantly. So when something random falls out of the mailbox, we might just make a discovery. And have a chance to share it with the world, of course. And so with that selfish mindset a given, John Ettinger just scored a whole heap of points this evening. August Rain comes from San Francisco and the artist put together a pretty miserable press sheet, along with a ’maybe later...’ web page, so there wasn’t much to do but guess. And to be honest, it’s brilliant. These West Coasters have a thing about music hovering between funk, the jam, free jazz, and good solid swing, simultaneously doing it all (and them all) right. The secret in this case is John Ettinger, violinist and looper and effects man, sharing the stage with electric piano, bass, and drums. He has a way of popping in and out at opportune times to build a melody out of a groove, establish a specific mood, or carry on a burst of lyricism. The loops swirl all the time. ’Lead A Normal Life’ grows out of a simple drone to acquire echoing background whispers, a child-like bass melody, Fender Rhodes chords... and then finally Ettinger pops in personally to take swinging pizzicato lines away from the organist and turn them into a rallying point for a few ’70s dream sequences. And then, more or less without warning, everyone falls off a cliff into a smouldering dirge, emerging into one more of those childhood discovery moments and some straight up group polyrhythms. That’s one track, and you can guess how the rest work. Fortunately they do work, which is the frightening (and brilliant) thing about this music. You single out anyone from the band and he is more than competent. Drummer Scott Amendola in particular digs deep enough into each groove, whether organized or loose, to almost singlehandedly determine its rhythmic course. Rhodes man Art Hirahara and bassist Todd Sickafoose both hold their own in any case. You don’t often bump into this sort of thing, which makes it all the better when it’s unexpected. (There’s a whole lot of bad unexpected music in the world, trust me.) So score twenty for John Ettinger and his team. August Rain is a dream state with enough of both fantasy and reality to leave you wondering whether it’s actually happening." –Nils Jacobson, All About Jazz Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2003 All About Jazz and Nils Jacobson. On San Francisco Electric String Trio: –Derk Richardson, East Bay Express "This is not your grandfather’s string quartet, nor even your new classical Kronos or Arditti, but rather a power trio of amplified improvisers on strings that become orchestral, rocking, and outward bound through extemporaneous manipulations by Doug Carroll, John Ettinger, and Jim Herron." On Hurlo Thrumbo: –Lee Hildebrand, East Bay Express "The band’s compositions were tightly arranged to highlight sinewy violin-guitar textures and allowed ample room for solos. Ettinger’s cleanly executed, alternately rhapsodic and jarring improvisations were most compelling."   –Larry Kelp, East Bay Express "Two exciting bands that fall into the ’90s jazz scene. T. J. Kirk (Charlie Hunter, John Schott, Will Bernard, Scott Amendola), and Hurlo Thrumbo offer different approaches to figuring out just how to integrate the great jazz of the past into music of today."   –From Larry Blake’s Calendar "I don’t know how to describe it, but the music is enthralling and the musicianship is excellent."