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Jazz Articles about Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty: Open Strings
by John Kelman
Artists are often defined--and pigeon-holed--by the music that's had the best distribution, not necessarily their best music. Not that any of the fusion discs that Jean-Luc Ponty recorded in the mid-'70s are bad; far from it. But the music the Frenchman released, before he moved to the United States, reveals a different formative period for the violinist, in stark opposition to electrified music of Imaginary Voyage (Atlantic, 1976), the Afro-centric explorations of Tchokola (Columbia, 1991), or the consolidation of The ...
Continue ReadingJean-Luc Ponty: Electric Connection / King Kong
by John Kelman
Having already released King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (Pacific Jazz, 1969) as part of its remastered reissue of Blue Note's 1976 two-disc compilation, Cantaloupe Island (BGO, 2006), which brought together King Kong and The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio (World Pacific, 1969), it's a little curious that England's BGO Records would reissue King Kong again as part of a two-fer with the French violinist's one and only big band intersection, Electric Connection ...
Continue ReadingJean-Luc Ponty: Strong As Ever
by R.J. DeLuke
As a violinist in the changing music world of the 1960s and 1970s, Jean-Luc Ponty was it. He was a pioneer on the instrument, plugging in to be heard with screeching guitars and blaring horns. He not only had the chops-busting harmonic and rhythmic language of bebop down pat, but he had virtuoso abilities from his classical training. He combined them during a time of upheaval, in music and in society, in groups like Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and ...
Continue ReadingJean-Luc Ponty: Canteloupe Island
by John Kelman
Originally released in 1976, Blue Note's Canteloupe Island brought The Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio (Pacific Jazz, 1969) and King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (Blue Note, 1970) together as a two-album set. Long out-of-print, BGO's remastered reissue contextualizes the French violinist's later work. He may have dived deep into the fusion pool with albums including Aurora (Atlantic, 1975) and Imaginary Voyage (Atlantic, 1976), and explored African rhythms with Tchokola (Epic, 1991), but ...
Continue ReadingJean-Luc Ponty: The Acatama Experience
by John Kelman
It's been six years since Jean-Luc Ponty last released a studio disc. Contrasting with the more heavily produced Life Enigma (JLP, 2001), The Acatama Experience places greater emphasis on the violinist's working band. It's also a record that consolidates his early years as a straight-ahead player with his 1970s fusion and later forays into funk and African rhythms. And it's a true merging, not just an unfocused mix of diverse styles. Legendary bop pianist Bud Powell's “Parisian ...
Continue ReadingJean Luc Ponty: In Concert
by Dennis Cook
There's a reason jazz-fusion has a bad reputation. It frequently takes the simple, graceful sway of group themes and solos and allows the latter to dominate in icky extended masturbatory excess. At the same time, the melodies are often an afterthought, an excuse for noodling and aimless technique demonstrations. Jean Luc Ponty once apprenticed with Frank Zappa, who knew a thing or two about complex musicianship paired with equally complex compositions. In the intervening decades, he's slipped into the same ...
Continue ReadingJean Luc Ponty: Live at Semper Opera
by Glenn Astarita
Few would debate violinist Jean Luc Ponty’s pioneering ways within the early 70s fusion movement, whereas the artist did introduce a novel approach to melding the violin with the jazz vernacular. Decades pass, and Ponty continues to hone his craft via recent world beat efforts amid programmatic rhythmic foundations and utilization of synths. However, this outing recorded at a Dresden Germany located Opera House represents Ponty’s quintet at its finest! Marked by the stunningly beautiful 32 bit recording processes, the ...
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