The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience

Baldhard Falk had tipped me off that Jean-Luc Ponty was coming to Los Angeles to record. I knew instinctively that this was a great opportunity for me, not only to make a name for myself, but also to play with the world's greatest contemporary jazz violinist. I can't tell you how I knew this, but I did. Opportunities sometimes don't come around twice, so I made the best of this one. Many good things happened as a result of these sessions with Jean-Luc.

Actually, we recorded an album at Donte's Jazz Club first. The trio featured John Heard-bass, and Al Cecchi -drums. I played no electric instruments and the music was pretty daring for its time. That record was recorded in March 1969, but was not released until many, years later.

Dick Bock, the owner of Pacific Jazz Records thought it would be great for us to record the same music in a rock club. Jean-Luc was not hot for the idea as I remember, but eventually said OK. I was really into playing the piano then, and requested to Dick that they have one there for me to play. Having grown up in San Francisco during the Height Ashbury days, I had been to many rock clubs that had no piano available. Dick promised me there would be one there.

As fate would have it, when I arrived at the gig, there was no piano! The only thing I saw was a silver top Fender Rhodes. I was pissed. Dick had invited all the LA heavies, so, I knew I had to be on anyway. Jean-Luc and I had developed a buzz on the West Coast because of our high intensity progressive jazz style. Dick Bock was convinced that our brand of jazz could get over to an opened-minded rock audience. He was right! I took on the challenge of playing the Fender Rhodes with ferocity. The date was September 27, 1969. The drummer was changed, for what reason I don't remember. Dick Berk was the new drummer.

In attendance were Frank Zappa, Quincy Jones, Gerald Wilson and Cannonball Adderley to name a few. The club was packed! By the way, the name of the club was "Thee Experience."

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