The George Duke Interview

Thee Experience by George Duke † ​When I found out Jean-Luc Ponty was coming to the United States to make a record, I went nuts. There was no Internet, so I mailed him reel-to-reel tapes of my band and asked him to play with us. He said, “Yeah, let’s give it a shot.” ​In March 1969, we made a record live at Dante’s, which at the time was pretty daring: electric instruments including a violin at an acoustic bop club. We also made a studio album called Electric Connection with acoustic piano. And believe it or not, that month we made a third record that Frank Zappa produced called King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa. Jean-Luc said the only way he would do this record with Frank was if he could bring his piano player (me). We listened to Frank’s music, and it sounded pretty interesting, so we made the record. Frank kind of liked the way I played. ​In September, Jean-Luc came back. We played a club called Thee Experience, which was right on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Then we made a record there with John Heard on bass and Dick Berk on drums. It was punningly entitled Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio. ​Dick Bock, owner of World Pacific, told us that, with the kind of jazz we were playing, we could enlarge our audience by appealing to a rock crowd. “All you got to do is play the same music you’re playing, just put a rock beat under it. Not the whole set, just a couple of tunes, and let’s see what happens.” Jean-Luc really didn’t want to do it, but I said, “Man, let’s go for it.” ​But the young and inexperienced me told Bock, “The only way I’m going to do this is if you have a piano down there for me.” He promised me faithfully, “You’ll have a piano.” ​ On the day, I walked into the club and asked, “Where’s the piano?” To my consternation, there was a Silver-Top electric piano, only 73 keys, and clunky. I was like, “Oh, man!” It was too late to do anything about it. Quincy Jones was there. Cannonball Adderley came in. Frank Zappa was there. Gerald Wilson came by. They all came to see this electric violinist who was making a noise in the jazz world. ​Then I found out that you could turn the keyboard up and be as loud as the drummer. I exclaimed, “Dick Berk’s not going to bother me tonight!” Then I discovered the bass and treble controls. I decided to become extroverted. I played with my head, my feet; I just went nuts. ​Frank liked it, and that’s how I hooked up touring with him.