# Jean-Luc Ponty: ‘Nothing was too intricate for me because I had that solid technical background’: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/03/07/jean-luc-ponty-nothing-was-too-intricate-for-me-because-i-had-that-solid-technical-background-video/
- Published: 2018-03-07T10:17:41+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**The French violinist, who celebrated his 75th birthday last year, is a trailblazing
figure in the world of jazz. **

Yet his grounding in classical technique was important in shaping his musical approach,
he tells Toby Deller.

![Jean luc ponty at the nice jazz festival 2008 c.guillaume laurent cc.by.sa.2](
https://i0.wp.com/dnan0fzjxntrj.cloudfront.net/Pictures/480xany/8/9/6/9896_jeanlucpontyatthenicejazzfestival2008c.
guillaumelaurentcc.by.sa.2_610922.png?w=640&ssl=1)

**Jean-Luc Ponty at the Nice Jazz Festival in 2008. Photo: Guillaume Laurent/Wikimedia(
CC BY-SA)**

As much as I admired Grappelli, once I discovered modern jazz it appealed a lot 
more to me than gypsy jazz because the modern harmonies are closer to Debussy and
Ravel,’ says Ponty.

A hostage of neither the tradition of classical violin nor the more recently popularised
style of Grappelli, Ponty followed his own ears. His classical training stood him
in good stead, particularly, he says, his left hand. ‘It helped me to approach any
type of music I wanted: nothing was too intricate for me because I had that solid
technical background.’

Yet emulating the classical violin sound in his jazz playing was not an aspiration.‘
Sound is, of course, a very important concern for string players, but my approach
was different from that of other jazz violinists, maybe because my early influences
in jazz were sax players like John Coltrane. I was very impressed by that sound –
straight, with no vibrato – just as I was by the trumpet sound of Miles Davis. So
for me it was important to develop a full and intense tone. I must say that my teacher
at the Paris Conservatoire, Gabriel Bouillon, had a different technical ethos from
that of the other French teachers. He was more in favour of Russian bowing technique
and taught us to achieve a powerful sound while just playing one long note. It’s
about the pressure you put on the frog and the way you hold the bow, and to me it
seemed the perfect approach to playing modern jazz.’

Adapting his bowing to the rhythmic demands of jazz, though, was something Ponty
had to learn on the job – first in the active Paris club scene and then, as his 
talents gained recognition, further afield. ‘At the very beginning I might have 
been a little bit too regular and stiff, coming from Bach and playing so much Baroque
repertoire. Trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, when he heard me in America for the 
first time – I was maybe 24, 25 – said that I was playing great but that it would
help me to play country music. He was such a joker that I thought it was just another
joke, because I was not at all into country music. It was only after I moved to 
America in 1973 and saw the country fiddler Doug Kershaw that I understood what 
he meant.’

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