It’s impossible to pin down Jenny Scheinman. The violinist, vocalist and composer has made a career of embracing jazz, folk and a host of other styles and simultaneously transcending them.
“Since I’m consistently hard to define, that seems to have become my brand a little bit,” Scheinman, 35, said from her New York City home before leaving on a tour that includes two Colorado stops this weekend.
In a musical marketplace where there is constant pressure to fit into a niche, that stylistic elusiveness is exactly what has set this versatile musician apart and gained her a small yet ever-increasing group of fans.
Although Scheinman dislikes the label, because of the stereotypes associated with it, she is probably best known as a jazz violinist. She performs regularly at the venerable Village Vanguard, fronting her own combo or playing with such notables as innovative guitarist Bill Frisell.
Despite this immersion in the field, she still struggles with the jazz appellation, because of limitations she associates with it.
“I hope we’re redefining it,” she said. “It got mired in a kind of cool, a little bit snotty, male-driven social thing that I’m not particularly attracted to. But if you look at the music on my instrumental records, I guess it’s jazz.”
Scheinman has recorded five instrumental albums, which center on jazz but are touched by other influences including Eastern European music. “Crossing the Field,” which was released in October, includes a string orchestra and often exhibits a classical flavor.
A very different side of her musical persona can be heard on her self-titled, debut vocal recording, which came out earlier his year. With tunes by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and Mississippi John Hurt, it has a kind of old-time country feel.
Both of her parents were musicians, and the folk songs she learned while growing up in an isolated town of 300 people in northern California were inevitably imprinted on her musical DNA.
Concerned that Colorado audiences might not know which Jenny Scheinman to expect, she was quick to make clear that it is this folk-tinged facet of her musicmaking that will be showcased this weekend.
She will appear in Denver and Aspen with the Rodney Crowell Acoustic Trio. Crowell made his name in the 1970s as a songwriter and guitarist for Emmylou Harris.
“People are confused, for sure,” she said. “And I do get people at my shows who are jazz fanatics and have all my records and hear me singing a Lucinda Williams song and are freaked.”
If this stylistic zigzagging is sometimes hard for Scheinman’s fans to follow, it all seems perfectly normal to her. Early in her career, paying college tuition and simply surviving meant taking any gig that came along, and she played everything from Brazilian to Balkan music.
When she moved from the Bay Area to New York City in 1999, she got her foot in the door playing with the Big Apple Circus and wasn’t above a stint or two in the subway. But it didn’t take her long to get accepted in the city’s tight-knit musical community.
“It’s been remarkably easy in a way in New York,” she said. “The audience has been responsive, and I’ve been able to meet and play with people that I just adore.”
Scheinman’s instrumental albums are dominated by her compositions, and she wrote four songs for her vocal release. She calls herself an intuitive composer, relying on “random training” and what she has gleaned as a violinist.
“Usually, I commit to things that get stuck in my head,” she said. “That’s sort of my way of figuring out if they are good or not. That usually means I’m drawn to what I call sticky melodies — something singable or memorable.”
She prefers acoustic instruments, making an exception for Frisell’s free-spirited electronic stylizations, and seeks a predominantly “bare” sound that doesn’t obscure the music’s content.
Although Scheinman’s career has developed largely organically, she responds with a laugh and a big “Yes!” when asked if she wants to sell a million albums and become famous someday.
“I must not sound very ambitious, exactly,” she said, “but I can’t spend too much energy thinking about that stuff. But I do want it. I would love to tour and be able to play my music for as many people as possible.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
Jenny Scheinman and Rodney Crowell Acoustic Trio
Acoustic folk. Scheinman, a New York-based violinist and vocalist, performs selections from her recent self-titled vocal album as part of a broader program with Crowell and his ensemble. Saturday, 8:30 p.m. doors open, 9 p.m. concert, Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut St.; Sunday, 6 p.m. doors open, 10 p.m. concert, Belly Up Aspen, 450 S. Galena St. Saturday, $25, ; Sunday, $20, 970-544-9800 or .
