Jenny Scheinman Quintet

About

Jenny Scheinman makes the violin a bridge between intimate memory and collective history. Raised in Petrolia on California’s remote Lost Coast, she learned fiddle tunes with her father, grounding an adventurous musical imagination in family tradition. Her work moves deftly between jazz and Americana, bringing improvisational daring to storytelling’s warmth. Her two-night return to the Joe Henderson Lab includes music from her new album, One Hundred Years Today , guitarist Dave Devine , pianist Carmen Staaf , bassist Tony Scherr , and drummer Kenny Wollesen . Named Violinist of the Year in the 2025 DownBeat Critics Poll, Scheinman has toured and recorded with Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell, Lou Reed, and Joni Mitchell. Her accomplishments include film scores and an appearance on the original cast recording of Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown , revealing an artist whose expressive reach transcends conventional boundaries. A performance of music from One Hundred Years Today promises something more profound than a showcase: an encounter across generations. Released in November, its seven compositions draw largely on her Palestinian Jewish grandmother’s European travels. Postcards exchanged among musician friends between 1926 and 1937 sparked reflections on creativity, connection, and resistance amid rising authoritarianism. The recording reunites collaborators including guitarists Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, and pianist Carmen Staaf. Onstage, these pieces invite listeners to hear history not as a closed chapter, but as an urgent conversation. Scheinman’s music offers connection: a message carried forward, insisting that art can bear witness.