(fr2) Cash Investigation : Neuromarketing, Votre Cerveau Les Intéresse + Portrait, Jean Luc Touly (2012)

Les grandes sociétés ne lésinent pas sur les moyens pour s’acheter la complaisance de nombreux syndicalistes : versements cachés, cadeaux personnels, emplois fictifs, paiements en liquide, primes exubérantes, avancements et avantages indus, élections de délégués arrangées…

Cette enquête inédite dévoile les méthodes des requins qui prolifèrent en France pour profiter de l'aubaine économique offerte par le vieillissement de la population, ou comment ceux censés protéger nos anciens les spolient trop souvent, jouant de leur faiblesse pour s'accaparer leurs biens. Pauvres ou riches, personne n'est à l'abri, car leurs réseaux ont des ramifications jusqu'au cœur du monde judiciaire. Un système bien rodé, dont les forfaits sont commis à l'ombre des institutions supposées veiller sur les plus âgés et les plus faibles. …

“Although it is certainly part of a performer’s task both to nurture a special relationship with a work and to give the public a chance to enjoy it, the first thing that you need to do is to separate the work from its history.”

Drummer Daniel Humair's name might be listed first on this double CD, and organist Eddy Louiss may be the dominant voice, but it is the inclusion of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty as part of the trio that really makes it quite historic. Recorded in Paris in 1968, the live set features Ponty at the beginning of his career, before he came to the U.S., teamed up with the George Duke Trio, joined forces with Frank Zappa, became part of the second Mahavishnu Orchestra and had his long string of fusion albums for Atlantic. Not quite 26 at the time, Ponty is featured on the date mostly playing standards including "You've Changed," "Summertime" (which is taken double time), "So What," "Bag's Groove" and "Oleo." Sometimes his violin sounds a little like a saxophone and it is clear, even at this early stage, that Ponty had a great deal of potential in jazz…

Legendary drummer Kenny Clarke compared Jean-Luc Ponty to Dizzy Gillespie. Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marveled, "He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone." Born in 1942, the French violinist Jean-Luc Ponty transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz. On Frank Zappa's urging, Ponty moved to the States in 1970. Over the next years he toured with Zappa, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Chick Corea's "Return to Forever".

The occasion for this trio to work together was a 2010 concert that celebrated violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's 50th anniversary as a recording artist. Both the violinist and Stanley Clarke had collaborated before (a previous electric trio set with Al Di Meola, the Rite Of Strings was issued in 1995), but neither had collaborated with French jazz guitarist Bireli Lagrene prior to that evening. In playing for a mere 20 minutes, they created the impetus for D-Stringz – though it took two years for them to clear their schedules and get into a Brussels studio. These ten tunes are an assortment of standards and originals. The album is an acoustic, straight-ahead date that employs flawless swinging bop and post-bop, as well as 21st century takes on gypsy and soul-jazz and funk.

These 1964 sessions marked jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's recording debut as a leader. In spite of his choice of instrument, he was mainly influenced by bop musicians (especially saxophonists and trumpeters) rather than fellow Frenchmen, swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli. At this stage in his career, he chose mostly compositions by European musicians of his generation, along with tunes American jazz compositions that had stood the test of time. His angular playing in Martial Solal's "Une Nui Au Violon" contrasts with his later venture into jazz fusion, while his dash through Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" is almost immediately halted to first showcase drummer Daniel Humair then flautist Michel Portal before he takes center-stage with a blazing solo…