JEAN-LUC PONTY: LIVE

This great live album was my first contact with Ponty & fusion at all. A chap in college in 1993 gave this LP to me because he "had all this music in their original versions". Well, thanx a lot, Henrique, wherever you are! This was my first step outside the rigid boundaries I'd constructed to myself, constraining me in the "pure" prog rock and heavy metal worlds. What a fool we are at the 19's!

This collection abridges a short best-of from his albums on Atlantic Records (his best phase and band IMO). So we have music from Aurora till the then recent Cosmic Messenger. It's a real threat to all jazz-rock aficcionados and a wonderful introduction to the fusion world, since there's a great dose of rock (or prog rock if you want) in these recordings.

The only flaw of this brilliant album is its shortness. For those who wants to explore what was a Ponty concert in the late 70's I recommend the recording made by the great Lampinski from his 1979 tour (search it and you will find). That is a 5-stars piece; this one is a 4.5 stars.