O’Connor fiddlingdizzying in Orono

ORONO – Early in the old jazz standard “Misty,” there’s the line: “Walk my way, and a thousand violins begin to play.” If you’re the singer and the violinist happens to be Mark O’Connor, you can safely dispose of the other 999 violinists. You won’t need them. O’Connor will give you all the misty – and “Misty” – you could ever want.

At least he did Thursday night, when the Grammy Award-winning orchestral composer showed up at the Maine Center for the Arts with his sophisticated, hard-driving jazz ensemble. The show was booked as O’Connor’s Hot Swing Trio, but it’s just like O’Connor – a triple-threat fiddler of folk, classical and jazz music – to mix it up. He arrived with sizzling guitarists Howard Alden and Stephane Wrembel, masterful bassist Jon Burr and Nashville vocalist Annie Sellick.

O’Connor is fresh from a stint at Lincoln Center in New York City and is on the road promoting his “Live in New York” recording released a few months ago.

During Thursday night’s program, the group played several selections from the new CD, including “Fascinating Rhythm” and “Gypsy Fantastic.” Those who first knew O’Connor as a fiddler and remain dubious about his crossover to jazz violin had to experience a conversion during the latter piece. He moved with such nimble virtuosity and breakneck speed that the hold-out folkies in the audience must have wanted to whistle and shout, “Go, Mark, Go!”

But this was much more of a black suit and tie event, at least onstage. All the audience could do was applaud raucously, and it did so throughout a swing program that left more than a few longing for some dance space.

O’Connor paid tribute to his late friend and mentor Stephane Grappelli with “Minor Swing” and “Lime House Blues.” His classical-style solo in Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages” was packed with tenderness. When Sellick, who has a mane of cascading dreadlocks and a funky style, joined the quartet occasionally, she added husky and bright vocalizations with “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and “I Get a Kick Out of You.” With a cheerful, flippy style, Sellick was all girl-exuberance to the guys’ cool-dude politeness.

While all the musicians gave impressive accounts of their individual talents, O’Connor stood out as the distinctive voice. Chirpy, screechy, torchy, delicate or dizzying, O’Connor has an aria all his own.