Jean Luc Ponty

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
This live album was my starter to JL Ponty his work. I was in a record shop, watched the cover picture (photos from Armando Gallo, known from his work for Genesis) …

Jean-Luc Ponty - Original Album Series 1975-1978 [5CD BoxSet] (2012) {Rhino}
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© 2012 Rhino / Atlantic / Warner | 8122796920-1
Jazz / Fusion / Post Bop / Electric Violin

A pioneer of the electric violin in the 1970’s, and an inspired manipulator of sequencers and synthesisers in the 1980’s, Jean-Luc Ponty is the undisputed master of his instrument in this area. Experimenting with electronics and synthesis, he liberated the violin’s image and capabilities from classical or folk settings. After cutting several albums for the World Pacific label in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, In 1974, fresh from a tour with the Mahavishnu Orchestra until he signed a solo deal with Atlantic Records. Throughout the next decade, he was to record a dozen visionary albums, 5 of which are included here.

Jean-Luc Ponty - King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa (1970) {Blue Note}
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© 1970, 1993 Capitol / Blue Note | CDP 0777 7 89539 2 0
Jazz / Post Bop / Fusion / Violin

Not just an album of interpretations, King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa was an active collaboration; Frank Zappa arranged all of the selections, played guitar on one, and contributed a new, nearly 20-minute orchestral composition for the occasion. Made in the wake of Ponty's appearance on Zappa's jazz-rock masterpiece Hot Rats, these 1969 recordings were significant developments in both musicians' careers. In terms of jazz-rock fusion, Zappa was one of the few musicians from the rock side of the equation who captured the complexity – not just the feel – of jazz, and this project was an indicator of his growing credibility as a composer. For Ponty's part, King Kong marked the first time he had recorded as a leader in a fusion-oriented milieu (though Zappa's brand of experimentalism didn't really foreshadow Ponty's own subsequent work).

Any time the likes of Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty are assembled, there is a good chance the results are going to be impressive. Clarke and DiMeola had played together in the legendary Return to Forever, producing some of the most intense playing in all of fusion; Jean-Luc Ponty had also made several excellent, very diverse recordings. The chops of these three musicians are pretty much unsurpassed in the industry, which in itself makes Rite of Strings worthy of a listen. The real treat, however, is in the song selections. Three of DiMeola's more recent compositions are here, including the uplifting "Chilean Pipe Song." On this song, Clarke and Ponty's dual-bow sound provides a nice backdrop to DiMeola's introduction before DiMeola and Ponty state the melody together. Ponty has always been one of the more interesting violinists, mostly because he experiments with the instrument's tonal possibilities.

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 transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz…

Any time the likes of Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty are assembled, there is a good chance the results are going to be impressive. Clarke and DiMeola had played together in the legendary Return to Forever, producing some of the most intense playing in all of fusion; Jean-Luc Ponty had also made several excellent, very diverse recordings…