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French violinist JeanLuc Ponty (1942) is the musician who took the violin into the electric/electronic age and made it a pivotal force of the jazz-rock movement.
Originally employed in a symphony orchestra, Ponty debuted at the age of 22 with Jazz Long Playing (july 1964).
His first important composition was Suite For Claudia on Sunday Walk (june 1967) for a quartet with pianist Wolfgang Dauner, bassist Niels Pedersen and drummer Daniel Humair. Ponty had already developed a style at the instrument that basically imitated the phrasing of the bebop soloist and occasionally flirted with free jazz.
He more than flirted with jazz-rock when, relocated to Los
Angeles, he started working with rock composer Frank Zappa (1968).
Ponty joined forces with pianist George Duke to form the ensemble of Electric Connection (march 1969), that contained his Hypomode Del Sol,
and the ensemble of King Kong (october 1969), that performed music by Zappa (notably Music for Electric Violin and Low Budget Orchestra, a masterpiece of jazz, rock and classical fusion).
(Experience and King Kong were later combined as Canteloupe Island.)
Ponty's main compositions of the time reflected the Zappa influence:
Contact on Experience (september 1969) for a quartet with Duke on piano,
the 20-minute three-movement suite Flipping and the 15-minute Open Strings on the sublime Open Strings (december 1971) for a quintet with keyboardist Joachim Kuhn and guitarist Philip Catherine,
Astrorama on Astrorama (august 1970),
Concerto for Jazz Violin and Orchestra on With Kurt Edelhagen & His Orchestra (july 1969),
and especially the five-movement Sonata Erotica (june 1972), recorded live
with Ponty on acoustic violin and echo box, Joachim Kuhn on electric piano, Nana Vasconcelos on percussion, plus a bassist and a drummer, basically a
reworking of the concerto for jazz violin and orchestra.
After playing with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, a more electronic
and energetic sound surfaced on Upon the Wings of Music (january 1975), with en electronic keyboardist and with Ponty playing electronically-modified violins (the overdubbed solo violin workout Echoes Of The Future). It also displayed the first symptoms of Ponty's African passion (percussionist Ndugu Leon Chancellor).
That album's energetic and futuristic fusion set the pace for the subsequent albums, that mostly replicated the line-up of the
Mahavishnu Orchestra (electric violin, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums):
Aurora (december 1975),
Imaginary Voyage (august 1976), highlighted by the 20-minute four-movement suite Imaginary Voyage,
Enigmatic Ocean (july 1977), with Allan Holdsworth added a second guitar and two multi-part suites, Enigmatic Ocean (twelve minutes) and The Struggle Of The Turtle (13 minutes),
Cosmic Messenger (april 1978), with Ponty doubling on synthesizer and with Peter Maunu and Joaquin Lievano splitting guitar chores (Egocentric Molecules),
A Taste for Passion (july 1979), where the cliche' began to wear out,
and Civilized Evil (july 1980) where the cliche was becoming unbearable.
The 24-minute five-movement suite Mystical Adventures on Mystical Adventures (september 1981) de facto closed an era.
Ponty was ready for a major change. He embraced the electronic machines
(synthesizers, sequencers and rhythm machines) and recorded albums that relied
very little on his guests:
Individual Choice (may 1983), with Computer Incantations for World Peace,
Open Mind (july 1984), Fables (august 1985), The Gift of Time (may 1987)
and Storytelling (1989).
Tchokola (january 1991) and No Absolute Time (march 1993)
were collaborations with West-African musicians, devoted
to various styles of African pop music,
The Rite of Strings was a group formed in 1995 with guitarist Al DiMeola and bassist Stanley Clarke.
Life Enigma (2001) was mostly a (mediocre) solo effort.
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