Keep (it) Swinging: Jean-Luc Ponty

KEEPSWINGING.BLOGSPOT.COM 1000: What's your favorite?
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ENGLISH ( Naar het Nederlands-Vlaamse deel met een honderd jaar geleden geboren Duitse trombonist Walter Dobschinski)

JEAN-LUC PONTY: ENIGMATIC OCEAN

When I'm record hunting I sometimes find records that seem sometimes outside my range of vision. Like this one: Jean-Luc Ponty - Enigmatic Ocean.
Jean-Luc Ponty, born in France in September 1942, studied the violin at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and started his career in a classic symphonic orchestra, Concerts Lamoureux. While playing classical music he learned to love the music as played by Miles Davis and John Coltrane and took up the clarinet and saxophone. He also learned to express himself in jazz on his major instrument: the violin.
He had to make a choice; classical music or jazz musci and it became the latter mentioned style in music.

The way he played bebop-jazz on his instrument was rather remarkable and critics were astonished about his sound. One of his first recordings, that became known, was Violin Summit, recorded together with Svend Asmussen and Stuff Smith. I wrote about that great album in a previous blog.
In 1967 he performed for the first time in The States at the Monterey Jazz Festival ( with John Lewis' Modern Jazz Quartet). These performances were very succesfully and Jean-Luc became a sought after musician.

In the 1970s pop artists like Elton John and Frank Zappa worked with him and asked him for tours. He moved with his family to California and played with bands like John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. He got a record contract from Atlantic, which released a dozen albums. One of those albums is Enigmatic Ocean I found at a junk sale. This album became a hit and even reached the US top 40 in 1977. The music could be labeled as jazz-fushion and I really like it. Critics label say that his sound, the amplified violin, is very prominent - forgetting the overall sound on those recordings.

I love to finish this small contribution with a film fragment of a performance in which Jean-Luc Ponty plays part of the tune Enigmatic Ocean. Hope you like it.

It is one of those records in my collection I love to play now-and-then, although it is not the bread and butter in my collection ....... If you happen to find a copy of this album - take it.

Hans Koert - keepswinging@live.nl

Walter Dobschinski - 1908 - 1996 trombone/arranger/leader/composer

Walter Dobschinski is a well known name in German entertainment. He was born 100 years ago, on the 29th of October, 1908, in Berlin as Walter Dobrzynski. He became known as Max Telke (pseudonym) or Walter Dobschinski. He played the trombone and bass

but was also known for his compositions and arrangments. In the 1930s he played with Kurt Hohenberger and made arrangements for bands like Teddy Stauffer. In the 1940s he was a member of the STO (= Deutsche Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester) and the RBT-Orchester (= Radio-Berlin-Tanzorchester) and made his first records under his own name on labels like Amiga and Imperial. He was a sought after sidemen in a lot of bands. He passed away in Berlin February 1996.

Keep swinging

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl

KEEPSWINGING.BLOGSPOT.COM 1000

Nederlands ( To the English section with a contribution about te violin player Jean-Luc Ponty )

Walter Dobschinski - (1908 - 1996)trombone/arrangeur/banleider/componist.

Walter Dobschinski is in Dutisland een bekende naam in de amusementswereld. Hij werd, vandaag, 29 oktober 1908, 100 jaar geleden in Berlijn geboren als Walter Dobrzynski. Hij gebruikte soms het pseudoniem Max Telke of zijn iets aangepast naam Walter Dobschinski. Hij speelde trom

bone en bas, maar werd vooral bekend door zijn composities en arrangementen. In de jaren dertig speelde hij bij Kurt Hohenberger en schreef arrangementen voor bands als die van Teddy Stauffer. In de jaren veertig was hij lid van het STO (= Deutsche Tanz- und Unterhaltungsorchester) (= Het Duitse dans- en amusementsorkest) en het RBT-Orchester (= Radio-Berlin-Tanzorchester) en maakte hij zijn eerste platen onder eigen naam voor labels als Amiga en Imperial. Hij werd een geliefd begeleider en verbleef dan ook in talloze radio en tv-orkesten. Hij overleed in Berlijn februari 1996.

Hans Koert - keepswinging@live.nl

Op deze dagelijkse Keep Swinging blog wordt binnenkort de 1000ste bijdrage geplaatst. Om dit te vieren wil ik een aantal populaire onderwerpen onieuw plaatsen. Geef je voorkeur op of

kies één van de twee suggesties hieronder en maak kans op de Lonehill Jazz CD van Frank Rosolino. Geef je voorkleur vandaag nog door: keepswinging@live.nl

1. Robert Normann 2. American Yodeling 3. Maak je eigen keus

Keep swinging

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl