“I remember from a very young age, I was very moved and attracted by beautiful melodies, whether it was in classical music or later on in pop music or jazz.” — Jean-Luc Ponty
French jazz violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty
For the launch of his interview series on WEKU's Eastern Standard, Zach Brock put in a call to France and spoke to famed jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. You can read along as you listen:
Brock: Hello, Jean-Luc.
Ponty: Hello, Zach.
Brock: It's such a pleasure and such an honor to speak with you today. How have you been?
Ponty: Not too bad for the young guy I am. Senior citizen now, you know. I cannot complain.
Brock: Well, you are quite spry. I know the last time I heard you play, which was just a
few years ago, you were shredding as hard as ever, I think. I don't know how you
do that.
Ponty: I'd rather not know. I just keep doing it as long as I can. And so far, so good.
Brock: That's very inspiring. For so many reasons, it's just a momentous occasion to get
a chance to speak with you. And also to be able to have this conversation go out
in the area where I grew up and where I first heard you and your music. It sort of
brings this kind of wild story to mind. When I was a kid growing up, it just so
happened that there was this local show that was on every week that did a recap
of the sports in the area, big basketball area here in Central Kentucky, and it
would be on at my grandparents' when I would go over there. And the way that the show started every week, they were playing this music for this four-on-the-floor beat and people clapping along with it. And then this violin would come in and it sounded somewhat like something you might experience in Kentucky, but there was something very different, especially as it played on. And of course, it was your very famous tune, “New Country.” It had this impact of making the violin a viable contemporary cultural thing for me as a kid, instead of
thinking of the violin as maybe an instrument that was just playing music of the past or very traditional music. And I just wanted to say that was going on in Central Kentucky in the early 80s. Your music was spreading far and wide, probably even farther than you imagined.
Ponty: Wow. I did not know about that. That's great. It's very rewarding for me at my
age now to discover that my work, early work for that matter, was appealing to
this type of people and region of the world.
Brock: How did that song come about?
Ponty: I had just arrived from France. I had moved to Los Angeles in 1973. And two
years later, I started my own band. My American manager, booking agent, was
also booking country music bands. Therefore, he invited me to a show in Los
Angeles. Of course, I'd heard of country music when I was in France and Europe,
but I didn't know much about it. And therefore, I went to that show and saw
Doug Kershaw. And it was amazing because he was playing electric violin and the
instrumentation. The band was like my band — electric guitar, electric bass and
drums. And coming back home after the show, it inspired me to pick up my violin
and just have fun and I came up with that tune. The easiest piece of music I ever
wrote and it turned out to be my biggest success.
Brock: For those of you out there who may not know Doug Kershaw, of course, you
should check out some of that. And you can actually see a concert that I believe
was filmed for PBS, right, Jean-Luc? The Fiddlers Three concert?
Ponty: Correct. Yes, it was 1976 or maybe '77. Anyway, I was invited to do a show in
Chicago for PBS. I was the main guest, and I could invite whoever I wanted. I had
seen Doug Kershaw in L.A. and I decided to invite him on the show, representing
the country music world. And then Itzhak Perlman was also part of the show
representing the classical violin world. I must say, I was impressed with how
Itzhak Perlman was so open-minded. Very nice, very easy to work with. He was
very open to crossing over from classical music to a more modern style of music.
So yeah, it's a great memory for me as well.
Brock: For some of the listeners out there who might not be violin players, I heard you
speak about starting to play jazz on the clarinet and how you had shown up to
play at a party or a jam session and you really didn't know how to play jazz. But
clarinet being your third instrument, you brought it to the party and were very
unselfconscious about just starting to improvise even though you didn't know
how to play jazz. Am I getting the story right?
Ponty: Yeah. Well, in fact, I met some students in Paris who were not professional
musicians, but they had a jazz band and they were playing once a month for a big
party at their university. They were looking for a clarinet player and I kind of
liked the idea of playing jazz with them, although I didn't know anything about
jazz. So I went with my clarinet and, they kind of auditioned me, playing a jazz
standard and asking me if I knew this piece. They started playing it and I
immediately started improvising. Yet after three tries, they understood I knew
nothing about jazz. I did not know these tunes. They said, "You have a good ear.
You can improvise, so we'll hire you." And that's how I started to learn what jazz
was about.
Once I understood that, it was fun to do. And I was discovering that I was able to
improvise. I did not know it before. And I have noticed that you have it or not.
It's a gift. And some classical musicians —or some musicians from any style —
some have that gift to be able to improvise, and maybe they don't know about it.
Some might miss a career in the style of music, and some others do not at all. So,
for me, it was a discovery, but I think it has a link with the fact that I always
wanted to become a composer. In fact, that was my dream in my youth. Violin or
clarinet, any instrument, was not my real passion. My passion was to become a
classical conductor and composer.
I started studying music theory for two years. I was preparing to enter the
conservatoire in the composers’ class. The thing is, at the time, it was very strict.
You had to compose when you were a student in composition. You had to write
atonal music exclusively. And there were big rules like that, and it felt very
intellectual to me. There was no emotion in it. So, at the same time, I discovered
jazz and it gave me the opportunity to compose music instantly.
Brock: Do you think that your desire to become a composer maybe had you listening
and experiencing music in a different way than someone who was seeing
themselves as someone who was just going to perform it at a high level? Do you
think you were maybe soaking up melodies and awareness of harmony and all of
that in a different way because of your intention, or do you think it was just
something that was there all along?
Ponty: Well, it's both, actually. It's something that was there, but it's true that after I
graduated from the Paris Conservatory as a classical student and I was hired in a
symphony orchestra in Paris where I played for two years, I was listening, I was
hearing all the instruments, all the harmonies, not just the violin parts, which
everybody around me was playing. I started in the section of second violin and
moved on to the first violin.
I remember discovering Stravinsky, for instance, playing “Fireworks” I think, for
the first time in my life. I was transported. I was in another world for two days. I
remember very precisely that I was listening to every part being played, the
woodwinds, the horns, and so forth. So I guess I was more inclined to hear music
this way than focusing more on just one solo instrument.
Brock: I also remember seeing an earlier interview that you did where the great
guitarist Larry Coryell called you “Mr. Melody.” A very obvious hallmark of your
music across the different eras of music that you've composed and recorded is
this extremely uncanny and strong melodic sense. I'm wondering how you think
that may have brought people into the music or helped bridge different genres
and where you think you might attribute that in terms of your particular gift for
melody?
Ponty: I think it's by instinct. It was never a conscious decision to write a melody there
or a certain type of melody. It always came as spontaneous inspiration. From a
very young age, I was very moved and attracted by beautiful melodies, whether
it was in classical music or later on in pop music or jazz. When I arrived in
America and started writing my own music, I had a strong focus on melodies and
that’s the reason Larry Coryell called me “Mr. Melody.”
I remember Chick Corea also mentioned that my music, he felt, was a blend of
European inspiration and American grooves, rhythm grooves and also the style
of music as well. But I guess maybe it's because I grew up listening to and
learning classical music. In classical music, there are so many great melodies. It
could be genetic too, because my father was a professional musician. He was a
violin teacher and he founded a small music school in our small town in
Normandy. He had been invited by a pop producer in Paris to move to Paris and
become a professional songwriter because he had noticed he was gifted to write
melodies. So maybe it's a gift in the family.
Brock: Your daughter has become quite a celebrated musician herself. And I'm
wondering what that's like. It's got to be a heavy thing to have a parent be a
world-famous generational talent and also to then go into the same line of work
as it were or passion. And I'm just so curious to know what it was like for you to
then pass the gift of music on to your daughter as your parents had passed it on
to you.
Ponty: I have two daughters and they are very close in age. They were very young when
I moved to Los Angeles, three and four years old. So when they were five or six
years old, I wanted to do like my parents had done with me. My mother was a
piano teacher and she started teaching me piano at the age of five and my father
violin at the age of five as well. Then later on when I was 11 years old, they asked
me to choose one of the two to become good at one as opposed to mediocre on
two instruments.
I decided to do the same thing with my daughters and have them start taking
both piano and violin lessons and see if they liked it and if they had a gift for it.
My second daughter chose violin very quickly, which she abandoned later on,
unfortunately. She turned out to be an artist. But my eldest daughter, Clara,
chose piano as her favorite instrument. She had a passion for music. I didn't have
to tell her that she had to practice. She was practicing on her own. She had a passion, like I had, from a very early age. I made sure she got good teachers and she graduated from USC, University of Southern California, where they have — at least they had at the time — a top-level music department and an especially great piano teacher. She was very talented as a classical performer.
In fact, I regret a bit that she did not pursue because she had really an exceptional talent to play classical music. And it was not just technical. She had that feeling that was really unique. But I guess she was a bit of a rebel like I was. She decided to — and maybe my example too — she decided to leave classical music and started doing her own. And the last thing I wanted to do was to force her to go in this certain style of music. I thought it was important to let her
develop her own gift, to develop her own style, which it is. It's a mix of classical
influence with more modern music.
Brock: When you guys get together, do you talk music or do you just relate on a more familial level?
Ponty: Well, we don't always talk music, but we do. We exchange a lot on the subject of
music. In fact, I have done some live performances with her. The last thing I
wanted to do was to be completely involved with her first recordings. I wanted
her to find her own musical personality. Once she did, then I accepted her
invitation to play on one or two tracks on her solo albums, which I did in the late
'90s or early 2000s. We started performing together as a quartet with her bass
player and my drummer, for instance. So, the combination was interesting
because her music is very feminine, very emotional. And mine has lot more
energy at times, you know, and speed. So, the contrast worked well, and made it
interesting in a live performance.
Brock: Thank you so much for spending this time with me. I have this smile on my face. My cheeks hurt right now. I've been smiling too much.
Ponty: Well, I am smiling too because you are such a great player, Zach. I really love you. You're a great violinist as well. That's why it's a pleasure for me to chat with
you.
Brock: Thank you so much, Jean-Luc.
Ponty: My pleasure. Thank you, Zach.