He worked with Benny Goodman, Adrian Rollini, the Dorsey Brothers, Bing Crosby, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Frank Signorelli, the Boswell Sisters, and most of the other important white jazz and semi-jazz figures of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

However, following Lang's death in 1933, Venuti's career began to wane, though he continued performing through the 1930s, recording a series of commercial dance records (usually containing a Venuti violin solo) for the dime store labels, as well as OKeh and Columbia, plus the occasional jazz small group sessions.

After a period of relative obscurity in the 1940s and 1950s, Venuti played violin and other instruments with Jack Statham at the Desert Inn Hotel in Las Vegas.

Statham headed several musical groups that played at the Desert Inn from late 1961 until 1965, including a Dixieland combo.

He also recorded an entire album with country-jazz musicians including mandolinist Jethro Burns (of Homer & Jethro), pedal steel guitarist Curly Chalker and former Bob Wills sideman and guitarist Eldon Shamblin.

Venuti was well known for giving out conflicting information regarding his early life, including his birthplace and birth date as well as his education and upbringing.

Gary Giddins summarized the situation by saying that "depending on which reference book you consult, (Venuti's age when he died in 1978) was eighty-four, eighty-two, eighty, seventy-five, seventy-four, or seventy-two.

Venuti, who surely had one of the strangest senses of humor in music history, encouraged the confusion.

(...) The deception has been variously traced to Venuti's father, who hoped to speed up the naturalization process, to Joe's fear that a foreign-born jazz musician would not be taken seriously by his peers, and to his general penchant for mayhem.

He spent time in the early 1900s playing in the James Campbell School Orchestra in the violin section.

[8] By mid-1925, he had moved to Atlantic City briefly to play with Bert Estlow's band before settling in New York.

[9] From 1926 to 1928, the Venuti and Lang duo were recording with most of the leading jazz musicians of the day, including Goldkette (1926–27), Red Nichols (1927–28), Bix Beiderbecke (1927), Adrian Rollini (1927) and Frankie Trumbauer (1927).

From the period of 1931–1933, Venuti recorded again with Eddie Lang, Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

Later, Venuti returned to a small group format and continued to play and record in and around Los Angeles, while touring frequently.

[12] A portion of the film was shot at the District Tavern in Seattle with Venuti sitting in with the New Deal Rhythm band led by John Holte.

During this time, he made his final recordings with Earl Hines, George Barnes, Ross Tompkins, Dave McKenna, Marian McPartland, Scott Hamilton, Leon Redbone, and Zoot Sims.

Venuti was a virtuosic player with a wide range of techniques, including left-hand pizzicato and runs spanning the length of the fingerboard.

[13] Venuti once tipped the inebriated and unconscious Bix Beiderbecke into a bath filled with purple jello.

[6] In a 1934 passenger list[3] he is stated traveling with his wife Sarah Venuti (née Israel).