Blues, Jazz, Rock Violinists?

"Rok2id, who said Jean Luc Ponty was a jazz great?"

No one did. I just stated that he was not a Jazz great. Given the direction and subject of the thread, confusion on this point would have been understandable.
Peace.

Minor house cleaning detour:
Validity or cultural impact is not determined by what got printed in Downbeat. That said I was surprised to find that during the early and mid 70's the rag was regularly putting Zappa on a pedestal, (Bongo Fury was an exception)... turns out they were right about his stature as a composer and i was too dumb to know it.
Mingus Died in 79'... and a poorly informed highly opinionated A'goner trekkie loses a bet, whoo-hoo.
Words like Jazz, Free Jazz, Avant Garde and Fusion don't really have much descriptive value and often get used by the weak minded to reinforce preconceptions and prejudices. No way am i gonna' play, this is jazz... this isn't jazz, but it's obvious that some of us haven't really listened to Ponty's Sunday Walk (1967) or some of his other early releases.

Duanegoosen:

"Words like Jazz, Free Jazz, Avant Garde and Fusion don't really have much descriptive value and often get used by the weak minded to reinforce preconceptions and prejudices."

Whew!! Talk about dodging a bullet! That lets me off the hook, because I didn't coin any of those terms. I only use them as put downs. In fact, we may agree on this issue. There is Jazz and there is music that is not Jazz. It's as simple as that. No prefixes or qualifiers needed or required. But your statement does call into question the mental condition, prejudices, and precoceptions of the writers and reviewers in the American music industry.

Mingus died in 1979? Thanks for the info. I don't do research when I respond to posts. My point was I could not believe DB would say such a silly thing, BUT, the magazine business is just that , a BUSINESS. I am sure they wish they had better artists and music to review and talk about, but they have to appeal to the people that buy the mag. Hence, Ponty and Zappa and a lot of other non-Jazz types get coverage. I BET :), the writers at DB long for the heyday of Blue Note and the high cabliber Jazz of that era.
Enjoyed your post.
Peace

Duanegoosen
BTW, do you agree of disagree with the idea that culture has to be defended. Otherwise we will have no culture.
I don't think a person can get together with a few friends and start a group, make some sounds, declared the sounds their First Symphony in A minor and then have it show up in the record stores right next to Bach and Mozart.

That's how I see the Jazz question. It's getting to be a dumping ground. People don't like what you are doing, short on talent, call it Jazz. just my two cents.

There you go again, speaking as if your OPINIONS are actually FACTS! Hard for me to fathom how someone that claims to love Jazz can be so tunnel-visioned and narrow-minded (as Jazz is the antithesis of this type of mindset). OK, so according to you, Ponty isn't a Jazz musician because you don't like the TYPE of Jazz he's played. Plz don't even attempt to say Fusion (or avant-garde/free for that matter) isn't Jazz as it really is an ignorant statement. If you hate these forms of Jazz, fine, lots of people do. But to say it isn't Jazz just 'cause you say so amounts to nothing more than a hissy fit! So if YOU don't like Big Band I guess that isn't Jazz either, or vocalese, or latin, or fill-in-the-blank. Jazz is a very small word for a very large music genre. McLaughlin, Corea, Zawinul, Davis, jeez, the list goes on and on, I suppose none of THESE guys are Jazz musicians either!?

Here's the thing, I don't like Ponty's work and I hate avant/free Jazz, but it seems silly to me to deny their existence. You say you're 'defending culture', but in reality, you're attacking it.

Here's a violinist that's been active for decades that I'd bet isn't too well-know around here: Alfredo De La Fe.