JEAN-LUC PONTY

The landmark collaboration between rock music's only successful jazz-rock fusionist and the ever-expanding, ever- adventurous, boundary-pushing virtuoso violinist. The Frank Zappa-penned (and produced) songs contain all of the jazz- and modern classical-underpinnings and eccentricities that Frank loved to put into all of his compositions-- especially during this period of his career--and, of course, they all contained at least some presence of the humor that he was so famous for--in both the music as well as the song titles.

1. "King Kong" (4:54) opens like a sterile, mostly rote playing of Frank's charts--at least, that is, until George Duke's dirty electric piano solo at the end of the first minute. Jean-Luc gets his turn a minute later as George, Frank, Buell Neidlinger, and Art Tripp support with some minimally-miked, poorly engineered funky jazz-rock. Gene Estes' vibes are about the only thing that sound well-rendered. I love the tempo shift beneath Jean-Luc at 4:30. (8.875/10)

2. "Idiot Bastard Son" (4:00) a slow dirge that sounds tongue-in-cheek despite the awesome drumming from John Guerin. Following the charts was surely not an easy task due to the numerous stop-and-changes, but bassist Wilton Fender does an admirable job of remaining melodic and smooth in spite of this. Jean-Luc's playing is as good as might be expected but nowhere as dynamically earth-shattering as they will become in the coming six or seven years. The corny entrance and play of the dragging horn section at the three-minute mark are laughable despite everyone's remarkable synchronization with the complex tempo and melody shifts. (8.875/10)

3. "Twenty Small Cigars" (5:35) slow and deliberate, the weave of multiple melody-holders in Jean-Luc, Ernie Watts, Wilton Felder, and Gene Estes, and George Duke is beautiful with each holding his own but interlocked and interwoven to perfection. A beautiful, fully-realized song. (9/10)

4. "How Would You Like to Have a Head Like That" (7:14) another beautifully rendered song (even in its sound engineering) over which Ernie Watts gets a lot of front time with his alto sax and George Duke Fender Rhodes satisfies in both support/rhythm and lead roles. Frank even gets a solo on this one--wah-wah-ed and not too flashy but fully plugged in. This feels like a song that could very well have inspired Eumir Deodato when he was scoring and pulling together his ensemble for his Prelude album and specifically the "Also Sprach Zarathustra" hit. (13.5/15)

5. "Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra" (19:20) A fully-classical composition of the Edgar Varese school of worship (as Frank was a fully-fledge and very vocal member). The first four minutes see the horns and classical orchestral instruments holding the line (under the supervision of Frank's very competent underling, Ian Underwood) while the jazz musicians kind of sit back and listen or minimally support. But then, in that fifth minute, the jazz combo takes over, with acoustic instrumentage--including a wonderful George Duke piano presence. (This is such a revelation of his extreme talent! Makes me want to hear more of his stupendous piano playing!) Jean-Luc, of course, is also present, in lead and support. At 8:25 there is a break and then the start up of a third movement--this one returning to the use of the orchestra, but here in an accompaniment role as Art Tripp's drums, Buell Neidlinger's bass, George's piano, and Jean-Luc's violin continue: it's just that everyone in the orchestra kind of doubles up or accents the jazzers' play. The entrance and presence of electric piano, electric bass, and electric piano is noticeable in the 12th minute as the "distant" electric piano sounds very much like those on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. This opens up a kind of avant/free jazz spell before every falls back into gentle melody-making around the 12-minute mark. But then things get loose and chaotic again by the end of the 13th minute. At 13:18 a low squirt from Ernie Watts' tenor sax signals another shift: this one to piano and vibes-led frenetic percussion play over which the rest of the orchestral mostly contributes smooth, calming chords (until they don't). The final movement begins at 15:17 as the instrumental palette returns to jazz combo-orientation, but the orchestral members remain on high alert for their near-constant contributions of subtle support and fill. Despite the feeling of smoothness here, the music is nowhere near simple--as the rhythmically-complex 18th minute soon shows in spades. The finish then sounds like a parody of some pompous British processional, though Jean-Luc and the pacifying orchestra get to play the rather beautiful final notes. I have to say: I love Frank Zappa's "classical" and jazz compositions! This one stands right up there with all the rest: like a more- serious "Lumpy Gravy." (38/40)

6. "America Drinks and Goes Home" (2:39) a real Jazz/New Orleans jazz feeling song with George Duke again playing acoustic piano with John Guerin's drums, Wilton Felder's bass, Gene Estes' vibes, and Jean-Luc's very disciplined violin all helping to realize this very complex, very stop-and-go composition. (4.375/5)

Total Time 43:42

A-/five stars; another minor masterpiece from Frank Zappa and his jazz orchestra. Though Jean-Luc gets the top billing, this is really the result of Frank's creative artistry. Highly recommended--especially for those who, like me, love Frank's music compositions yet can be turned off by his often sophomoric lyrics; this one's all instrumental!

Ponty leads this stellar ensemble in Post-Bop Glory.

Still plenty early in the career of this soon-to-be Fusion pioneer, Electric Connection is a light-Fusion album, more or less Mr. Ponty's fourth studio solo release. Most notable, I would say, is the featuring of the late, great George Duke on piano, and, Duke being the bridge between Ponty and Frank Zappa (with whom George played; in Frank's mid-70s Fusion band), Hot Rats drummer Paul Humphrey is also present. The year is 1969 and these guys kept busy.

"Summit Soul" is a quick-to-the-punch opener, with a great theme. Awesome guitar solo up front by Wilbert Longmire before Jean-Luc's own. With this fuller ensemble of musicians, in particular horns, there are elements here reminiscent to contemporaries Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears (I realize I talk about them a lot, but to me, they are early Jazz Rock). On "Hypomode De Sol", we enter into the Blues, a cool, smooth track. This band was hot. And I'm a huge fan of Jean-Luc, and his solo here is wonderful. Midway, they pick up the pace all, set to a blaze. The violin is in wonderful contrast to the sharp stabs from the horns. Up next, the ensemble covers the Simon & Garfunkel rendition of "Scarborough Fair" (with "Canticle"). Very lovely; more than cool to hear Folk-Jazz or whatever you might call this.

Up next, we have "The Name Of The Game", which honestly enough sounds at first like some TV theme song. But once they get rolling, we are truly in it. Great track, fairly straight ahead, but it gets real good with the sax solo. Definitely a moment I wish I could give specific credit (it's either Richard Aplar on baritone or Bud Shank on alto). To go back to the Zappa connection, it sort of reminded me of the distinct muted sax solos performed by Bunk Gardner of the Mothers. Enter cool swing with me on "The Loner". Delicious, and now that I'm thinking on it very of the decade, something distinctly '60s about its vibe. The intro though is something else... I assume just heavy, heavy reverb used on the violin. A very cool effect, especially for the time. This one is certainly straight-ahead, but will appeal to fans of the 'purer' stuff. 'Jazz', is it?

Ponty & Co. really capture a special sweetness on "Waltz For Clara", another swingin' number with Post-Bop arrangement. George Duke's piano is interposed between Jean-Luc's viol soloing and the rhythm section, featuring occasioned soft stabbings from the horns. There is a very warm and easily-approached quality from the production throughout this album, but this is a great number to showcase that. And then, a flute solo from Tony Ortega! Followed by a wonderfully free solo from Duke. Sweetness shifts into melancholy on the understated, balladic "Forget". Beautiful reprieve before our closer, "Eighty-One". And a helluva vibe on this one. Super cool, with a fantastic groove. Very of-the-time horny sections here. Another moment for drummer Paul Humphrey to shine. And one last heavy-chops solo from George. Awesome.

Another unique item in the Ponty's and Duke's discography, not only because of the names that meet in the Frank Zappa's group again. Both lead players would soon abandon the rich improvisational music that was at its height in 1969-1970 inspired by Miles. Then, we have the first electric album by Duke and he performs some very capable solos or jazz background support for Ponty. I think the strongest cuts are those with more coherent structure such as "Cantaloupe island", "Foosh". Comparing to Miles, we can also hear slight soul-jazz instrumental influences which give it a lighter touch in contrast to intensive numbers like "Starlight, starbright". The rhythm section is purely supportive but competently laying down the pattern.

As Jean-Luc Ponty came out of the 1980s, which for him had mostly been a decade of musical stagnation in which memorable musical moments were far outnumbered by unassuming filler, he decided that it was time for a swift change in musical direction and thus he embraced the concept of world fusion, augmenting his sound with African chanting choirs, rhythms and "tribal" percussion. The result sadly sounds less like a sincere attempt at artistic reinvention and more like a hackneyed attempt at hopping on a semi-popular bandwagon of the time. It clearly did not rejuvenate Ponty's own flame either because the man goes through the motions like never before on this album: there's nothing interesting about these saccharine compositions, his playing rarely impresses, and his violin tone sounds overly slick and processed, which together with the thoroughly lackluster production (with the same muddy bass and flat, unreverberated guitar twiddling about in the background the whole time) only helps to make this a very dull listening experience. The culture of the African continent deserves better representation than this hackwork.

This really comes across as a Ponty/ Zappa collaboration as Frank re-arranged his 6 tracks on here and then plays guitar on one song, the song Ponty composed "How would You Like To Have A Head Like That". They were fans of each others music before Jean-Luc started to play on Zappa albums. Frank's debut was in 1966 and Jean-Luc's in 1964. They have George Duke on electric piano throughout and Ian Underwood on sax on both the opener and closer. He also conducts the 19 1/2 minute "Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra". Ian had a Bachelors degree from Yale and a Masters from Berkeley in piano and composing. Interesting that Frank brought in Buell Neidlinger to play bass on the longest track here because he didn't know who else could do it. Buell was at the time playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra but he played with both Cecil Taylor and Gil Evans in the 50's.

The violin really does dominate the sound overall and this is all instrumental. "King Kong" is such a good way to start as we get this violin led track with bass, drums, vibes and electric piano mostly. Ponty is ripping it up before 3 minutes. "Idiot Bastard Son" has that familiar melody coming and going throughout. You don't need to hear the words when you can sing them. Not big on "Twenty Small Cigars" to be honest. Ponty's track is really good with George showing his stuff along with Frank. Kind of cool that we get a solo from George for about a minute followed by Zappa's guitar solo for about a minute before Ponty returns to end it with the violin. The long song is a trip through different styles and sounds. Conservatory music to Jazz to Avant it's quite the ride. The closer is okay.

Easily a 4 star album for me and no Jean-Luc did nothing else similar to this with his solo stuff but if I had to recommend one of his other solo albums it would be "Enigmatic Ocean".

Teaming up with young up-and-comers Daryl Stuermer (age 23), Patrice Rushen (21), and ex-Mother of Invention bass player Tom Fowler (who was only 25 years old) resulted in Jean-Luc's first successful solo foray into the burgeoning market of Jazz-Rock Fusion. After brief but intense stints with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra (Second Incarnation), the French violin virtuoso had a pretty good idea of the directions he wanted his career and music to go.

Line-up / Musicians: - Jean-Luc Ponty / acoustic & electric violins, Violectra, autoharp, arranger & producer With: - Daryl Stuermer (future GENESIS/PHIL COLLINS) / acoustic & electric guitars - Patrice Rushen / acoustic & electric pianos, synthesizer - Tom Fowler (IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY, FRANK ZAPPA & THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION) / bass - Norman Fearrington (MFSB, BILLY PAUL, future EDDIE HARRIS) / drums, percussion

1. "Is Once Enough?" (4:52) a fast cruisin' song that band leader Ponty graciously gives first dibs on extended solo time to his newbies: first to a very impressive Daryl Stuermer and then to keyboard virtuoso Patrice Rushen. A song that very much reflects Jean-Luc's recent experiences with both Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. (9.5/10)

2. "Renaissance" (5:45) an all-time great song of Jean-Luc's that harkens back a bit to his youth and to his fairly recent acoustic collaborations with Stéphane Grappelli. One of the things that makes this song so wonderful is the long drawn out melodies being played up front over the amazing bass melodies coming from not only the bass but Patrice Rushen's left hand and Daryl Stuermer's rhythm guitar support. (10/10) 3. "Aurora, Pt. 1" (2:45) innocuous and trite, mostly for the bouncy little keyboard sound and pattern that plays repetitively over the course of the song. This alone might not be so irksome were it not for the fact that it sits up front the entire time. Nothing special in the solos. Nothing special in the groove. Could've thrown this one away. Perhaps it served the band as an exercise in integrating and merging the sounds and styles of the five personalities involved with the making of this album. I would not be surprised to find out that this was the first song worked on when the band first got together. (4.25/5)

4. "Aurora, Pt. 2" (6:11) a smooth, easy going song that portends a lot of J-L P songs in the next decade. Nice shredding from Daryl on his own in the fourth and fifth minutes, but more impressive is the way he and Jean-Luc double up on harmonic paths at hyperspeeds on several occasions. Impressive but not as great as the first two songs. (8.875/10)

5. "Passenger Of The Dark" (4:14) has a kind of Canterbury feel to its opening, but then we go into an interesting "future funk" kind of sound with semi-funky bass and oscillating synth/violin notes weaving a patttern together with the drums that plays for the first two minutes over which Daryl starts out with an aggressive rock-like solo. In the softer, more spacious third minute Jean-Luc experiments with some of his new electronic/synthesized violin sounds--some of which his audience become quite familiar over the course of the next decade. I'm not sure why Patrice has been given almost exclusively background support roles for the past two songs, but it's noticeable. (8.75/10) 6. "Lost Forest" (5:23) roilling piano arpeggi and ocean-shore-like cymbal play opens this one while Jean-Luc presents his synthesized violin sound. In the gorgeous, rich full-band motif that develops Tom Fowler's effected (underwater) bass sound is awesome. Jean-Luc introduces the song's main theme before bowing out to let Patrice express her own ideas/variations with a Fender Rhodes. Then, in the fourth minute, Jean-Luc resumes his place at the fore with a typically melodic and dynamically impressive solo, which then is doubled up in the recapitulation of the opening theme with Daryl's guitar while Patrice plays around a bit from underneath. Such a cool song and songscape! Arise: Master of the Hypnotic Fairie Beauty! (9.125/10)

7. "Between You And Me" (5:54) a melodic song that somehow lets bassist Tom Fowler lead the way!(?) Pretty awesome. Though not funky, it is a catchy groove that Tom, Patrice, and drummer Norman Fearrington present and hold fast. Jean-Luc's electric violin seers an impressive solo in the first slot. When the band recongeals, it is with the same jazzy weave that Tom's bass lead us in with. Next up is Patrice with a very warm and smooth Fender Rhodes solo (the whole song is warm and almost smooth). Jean-Luc reclaims the spotlight for the next verse for a brief solo before calling the band back in for another go-round of the opening weave. Nice. (9/10)

8. "Waking Dream" (2:24) pensive piano chord play opens this before electric bass and electric violin and electric guitar join in to co-present an interesting melody--one that at first is perfectly harmonized by Tom's bass lines but then see him fall into a kind of one-bar counterpoint. Nice. (4.425/5)

Total Time: 37:28

Despite the fact that I owned this album back in the day, it feels fresh to me today, and yet, at the same time, revelatory of many of Jean-Luc's consistent future patterns and tricks of his trade. It was the next studio album, Imaginary Voyage that hooked me in as a devoté (and concert attendee) over the next ten years. I've also watched with no small sadness at the way keyboard virtuoso Patrice Rushen's career has slowly been whitewashed of her keyboard talent in place of her success as a singer. I've always loved her warm keyboard playing. I would think that this album helped significantly to serve each and every one of the performers in advancing their careers.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of Jazz-Rock Fusion, the first of a long line of them for this J-R Fusion master.

In the albums compiled here, Ponty's music is, as usual, full of resources that you can see coming for a good while before they reach you, but still, when they do so, they really get you. We can hear, e.g., the enveloping arpeggio by the electric guitar setting mood and ambiance for what's coming, the wha-wha processed funky bass emulating a duck-like excited voice, and the sensible legato on the electric violin, house brand of the artist. Let's see and compare:

CD 1 "A Taste for Passion": A step back from Ponty's 'classic period' 1975-78, but, still so, a classy & catchy jazz-fusion effort, even when turned milder than one might desire.

CD 2 "Jean-Luc Ponty Live": Great live performance, reflecting the arc of studio releases that gave Ponty's career its greatest momentum, from "Aurora" to "Cosmic Messenger".

CD 3 "Civilized Evil": A certain tecno twist crept in at this point (machines were taking over the world by then), but, at least, the bass lines ceased to be so overtly funky.

CD 4 "Mystical Adventures": Better, yet with some tecno relapse. Nice soloing by Jean-Luc, including his graceful flamenco touch.

CD 5 "Individual Choice": Rather run out of ideas, to my taste at least, but still listenable.

A baffling (Enigmatic) abundance of musical ideas (Ocean).

It's nice to see this album so universally loved here on ProgArchives; it is nice confirmation for those of us who place it among our top 5 albums of all time. There's no question that all the musicians here were top-notch, and just worked so naturally together on this album. But the dazzling solos would have gone unnoticed had it not been for Ponty's incredible compositions supporting them, and the unique voice of his electric violin. This was the type of album in the 1970's that caught your attention immediately, and stretched your musical tastes into a whole new and exciting style of contemporary music. For a young man (at that time!) who was just learning to appreciate the bass guitar in much of progressive music, I found Armstrong's jazzy but progressive fretless bass a source of endless creativity and fun.

Really, there is little I can add to the gushing reviews that others have already posted, but I needed to acknowledge this album's brilliance if only for reasons of posterity. This was indeed JLP's best, and one of the greatest albums ever - fusion, jazz, rock, prog...whatever. Absolutely essential for those stranded on a deserted island surrounded by...ocean. (Bring extra batteries!)

Quite a departure fromt the intensity and risk taking of previous works. I think there is no that much effort behind this album but it came lightly as Ponty and the band were still at the peak of their powers though getting to a safer region. Some tunes are memorable because of their melody and emotions rather than instrumental performance.

"Demagomania" has a nice violin motive and 80's simplified beat. "In case we survive" has a bit melancholic feeling and a more insteresting beat than the first track. "Forms of life" is a great atmospheric track driven by keyboards/violin and shows how easy it is for fusion masters to create such reflectve tracks after their soften the dynamic fusion speed. "Peace crusaders" is a first-rate fusion track with all instruments contributing heavily and originally - the same goes for "Shape up your mind" - these two tracks alone make it worth acquiring the album. The last track is again atmospheric and leaves a good impression of the Ponty being at crossroads.

The fourth highly acclaimed fusion album in a row albeit sometimes taking it more safely than previously. There are simpler tracks, parts but the group still plays very tightly and pulls it off for a dynamic ride sometimes. The bass and drumming remains stable, original and loud. Guitar is a bit more timid than at Stuermer and Holdsworth times, also less adventureous. The sound is a bit updated to reflect modern more streamlined fusion - examples are the first track and "The art of happiness". The third track takes us back to the recent days of glory when frenetic fusion ruled the fusion world. Excellent keyboard soloing and dynamic drumming. The chord progression is actually closer to progressive rock/Canterbury than fusion for which it is too simple. "Puppet;s dance" has a crazy irregular rhythm, maybe 6/8 but things won't calm down during "Fake paradise" that is just a great rhythm switcher between 4/4 and more complex ones. It's actually these two tracks that level up the rating to 4. In the absence of a suite, the last track should suffice - ambitious from the start till the end, with killer drumming and bass playing.

Even if compositions are less memorable than before, playing saves the 4-star mark.