Jack's Big Music Show Violinists? Nuttin' But Stringz Escobar Brothers

by Paula Neal Mooney

Last week I stopped frozen in my tracks at the sight of two black violin players on Jack’s Big Music Show. (You gotta roll thru the pics to the right till you see their faces and click on them.)

Now -- I love that "Jack’s Big Music Show" is already good at featuring diverse types of music.

But something about seeing black men exquisitely playing violins in a hip-hop style (though they don’t like to be labeled hip-hop) was so foreign to me.

At first I wondered if it was one man in a split-screen display on the "Jack’s Big Oops!" episode.

Turns out they were in fact two men -- Damien and Tourie Escobar – who make up the group known as Nuttin’ But Stringz, or NBS.

They were so stunningly good, I became obsessed and vowed to find out more about Nuttin' But Stringz. Here’s what I’ve found:

• Damien and Tourie Escobar (gotta love that last name, visions of Scarface abound) aren’t twins, but 18- and 20-year-old brothers from Jamaica, Queens. Here's the Nuttin' But Stringz Wikipedia page – as always, take it with a grain of salt...
• They are Juilliard-trained musicians. Here's the NBS MySpace page
• Nuttin’ But Stringz has a CD called Struggle from the Subway to the Charts out that I’m totally buying.

You can listen to sample songs from their CD here on Amazon, or their Jack's Big Music Show appearance while it's here, which is the best quality and sound.

If it's gone from the Noggin site, check out Nuttin' But Stringz' Jack's Big Music Show video on YouTube.

Slamming!

Give these kids their own show, please!

Nuttin’ but favor is more like it. Anyway, I’m just glad they are showing little kids everywhere – black and white – that it’s cool to pick up a violin and play the glory out of it.

Did you see the way one of those Escobar brothers leans all the way back while playing?

Did you see the fine finger work of the other? Or was it same? Just which one is Damien and which one is Tourie?

I want to see them in concert.