Jean-Luc Ponty, born September 29, 1942.

Son of music teachers, the violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty, (Avranches, France. September 29, 1942), began seriously studying violin, piano and harmony at the age of five, and at seventeen he entered the Higher Conservatory of Music from Paris, from which he left in 1960 with his first violin prize. He then began to play in symphony orchestras such as the “Lamourex Concerts” between 1960 and 1962.

His interest in jazz came as a result of his friendship with the violinist, Stephane Grapelli, and in December 1961 he joined the first jazz group when he joined Jef Gilson’s orchestra, with which he was regularly until 1964. That same That year he achieved important success at the Antibes Jazz Festival, which in some way marked his professional future in the fields of jazz.

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In 1966 Down Beat magazine placed him at the top of soloists with unusual instruments in jazz. I play at the Blue Note in Paris, at the Chameleon club with the organist Eddy Louiss and the drummer, Daniel Humair. After a brief stay in the United States, he played with George Duke, and with guitarist Frank Zappa’s famous group: “Mothers of Invention”, and later with the Mahavishnu Orchestra led by guitarist John McLaughlin. Despite his love for pop music, Ponty was always faithful to jazz, finding his particular influence in the music of John Coltrane. Aside from his extensive solo career, he has also collaborated with people like John McLaughlin and Chick Corea.

Since 1975, Jean-Luc Ponty has been leading his own group, and has a virtuosity that allows him to place sixteenth notes at very high tempos, a phrasing brimming with enormously agile bow strokes and a capacity for inventiveness and melodic renewal that allows him to identify quickly.

On the electric violin, he reveals himself as an expert in mixing sounds who use technology sparingly and has discovered sounds with his instrument that stand up well to the test of time. This French violinist, keyboardist and composer moved away from the great violinist tradition of French jazz quite early to confirm himself, in the United States, as one of the guides of the jazz-rock movement.

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Jean-Luc Ponty & Stephane Grappelli Compact Jazz

Tracks:

A1 Pentup House 00:00 A2 La Chanson de Rue 05:53 A3 Carole’s Garden 09:48 A4 Undecided 17:34 A5 Sweet Lorraine 21:22 A6 Cat Coach 24:28 B1 Summit Soul 30:30 B2 Flamingo 37:13 B3 Sunday Walk 41:35 B4 Swing Guitars 48:03 B5 Tangerine 52:02

Al DiMeola, Jean Luc Ponty & Stanley Clarke – Indigo (Live At Montreux 1994)

LIVE AT MONTREUX – MONTREUX JAZZ ARCHIVES This performance is part of the unique Claude Nobs Foundation audio-visual collection, included since 2013 in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. From Aretha Franklin or Miles Davis to David Bowie or Prince, more than 5’000 concerts have been recorded LIVE both in audio and video since the creation of the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967 by Claude Nobs.

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