Rating: 
WORTH A LISTEN
This live 1968 recording of an organ trio holds interest for several reasons. One is the unique instrumentation of drums, organ and violin. Another is organist Eddy Louiss’ obvious admiration for Larry Young, the advanced post bop organist who played such an important role in the seminal Tony Williams Lifetime debut Emergency. But the most important is the presence of Jean-Luc Ponty, who plays post bop violin on this release.
For folks who are only familiar with Jean-Luc Ponty’s playing with his own band, his brief tenure with the second incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and his stint with Frank Zappa, Ponty’s sound on Humair Louiss Ponty will come as a revelation.
Jean-Luc Ponty’s approach on Humair Louiss Ponty owes nothing to Stephanie Grapelli, the most influential jazz violinist at the time, either in terms of improvisational techniques or in terms of his sound. Ponty approaches the violin like a horn. His phrasing is Coltranesque, his note choices less so. His harmonic conception is closer to that of saxophonist Joe Henderson during the same period. His tone is intriguingly raw, especially considering how sweet he chose to play when he started fronting his own fusion bands. Ponty’s playing throughout Humair Louiss Ponty is intelligent, creative and compelling.
Too bad the playing of his bandmates is less so. Daniel Humair’s drumming is clearly influenced by Elvin Jones, a good model to be sure, but Humair lacks the master’s compositional acumen, his power, and his touch. He gets the job done, nothing more. Organist Eddy Louiss doesn’t exactly set the world on fire with his playing. Frankly, it’s pretty dull.
The tunes on this double cd release are mostly standards, which aren’t arranged in any sort of creative way that might bring out new facets that we haven’t heard before. We have to make due with the novelty of the instrumentation, which is something, I suppose.
No, by far the best reason to own Humair Louiss Ponty is to hear what Jean-Luc Ponty sounds like playing post bop violin, but that’s probably enough. I’m glad that Ponty played with Frank Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but listening to this release makes me wish that he had stayed with post bop violin instead of gravitating to the bland, R&B inflected fusion he eventually settled on.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find samples from Humair Louiss Ponty, but I was able to find a sample of Jean-Luc Ponty’s jazz violin playing. Here it is: