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Mads Tolling Quartet: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty
By Track review of "Enigmatic Ocean"
Mads Tolling spent nine prominent years with the Turtle Island Quartet; here, with his quartet, the Grammy Award-winning violinist hails Jean-Luc Ponty at Yoshi's jazz venue in Oakland, CA. Tolling contributes two original compositions to complement six Ponty-penned works, amid other pieces culled from the legendary French violinist's expansive discography.
It's a bit sleeker, when directly contrasting Ponty's epic jazz-fusion Enigmatic Ocean (Atlantic, 1977). But Tolling turns up the heat via his intensely soaring unison choruses with guitarist Mike Abraham, and exercises a gleaming and impactful cover, though not as loud or ominous as the original rendition featuring Allan Holdsworth and Daryl Stuermer's blazing dual-guitar leads and solos.
The frontline imparts the sonorous melody amid soaring unison lines and a sense of openness, affording ample soloing opportunities and perky call-and-response mechanisms with the rhythm section. With yearning notes and a few rifling flurries, Tolling and Abraham extract the core attributes of the composition, but redesign the bridge section with a custom-built perspective. The varied track mix, containing numerous ebbs, flows, and variances in delivery, equates to an impassioned program gushing with an abundance of entertaining qualities.
It's a bit sleeker, when directly contrasting Ponty's epic jazz-fusion Enigmatic Ocean (Atlantic, 1977). But Tolling turns up the heat via his intensely soaring unison choruses with guitarist Mike Abraham, and exercises a gleaming and impactful cover, though not as loud or ominous as the original rendition featuring Allan Holdsworth and Daryl Stuermer's blazing dual-guitar leads and solos.
The frontline imparts the sonorous melody amid soaring unison lines and a sense of openness, affording ample soloing opportunities and perky call-and-response mechanisms with the rhythm section. With yearning notes and a few rifling flurries, Tolling and Abraham extract the core attributes of the composition, but redesign the bridge section with a custom-built perspective. The varied track mix, containing numerous ebbs, flows, and variances in delivery, equates to an impassioned program gushing with an abundance of entertaining qualities.
Personnel
Mads Tolling
violinMads Tolling: violin; Mike Abraham: guitar; George Ban-Weiss: bass; Eric Garland: drums.
Album information
Title: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Madsman Records
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Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty