J.R. Chatwell

One of the major figures in Western swing fiddling, J.R. Chatwell was heavily influenced by the jazz violin style of his hero, hot jazz-era player Stuff Smith. He packed up his jazz licks and headed over to the country camp, putting such a zesty brilliance in his brief early recorded solos that it totally turned the heads of generations of fiddlers to follow, including Johnny Gimble, a star fiddler in both Western swing and country. Chatwell's name will inevitably come up if there's a discussion of working links between country and jazz, provided the people talking are fairly well informed about the subject. Although a younger generation of Texas musicians spearheaded by the loveable Doug Sahm took Chatwell under their wing and kept him in business long after a stroke took away his ability to fiddle, he still remains a fairly obscure figure. He was not a member of the Bob Wills band, so is not included in the pantheon surrounding this most famous of the Western swing bands. But he might as well be, because his playing style was such a big influence on the musicians in the Wills outfit. Later arrangements in this group by guitarist Eldon Shamblin in which various motifs of Texas swing fiddling were written down to be played by the Wills two- or three-man fiddle clusters meant that some of the classic "J.R." licks wound up codified right into the riffs of Wills and his Texas Playboys. Chatwell took up fiddle as a teenager, playing mostly jazz and pop standards with his brother who picked a bit of guitar. Piano became his second instrument within a year or two. The music of Milton Brown and his band the Brownies was enormously popular at this time, and the Chatham boys would check out the group live whenever an opportunity presented itself. This is where Chatwell first...