Violinist Jean-Luc Ponty is widely regarded as an innovator who has applied his own unique visionary spin that has expanded the vocabulary of modern music. New album in 2007: 'The Acatama Experience'!

Line Up:
Jean-Luc Ponty - violin
William Lecomte - keyboards
Guy Nsangué Akwa - bass
Thierry Arpino - drums
Moustapha Cissé - percussion

Download:
jeanlucponty.zip (14.8 KB)

Download includes Biography, Discography, Line-up (doc) and the Image (jpg)

Artist Website:
www.ponty.com

Biography:
Jean-Luc Ponty is a pioneer and undisputed master of violin in the arena of jazz and rock. Classically trained, with an unquenchable ability to swing when he wants to, and consumed by a passion for tight structures and repeating ostinatos, Ponty has been able to handle styles as diverse as swing, bop, free and modal jazz, jazz-rock, world music and even country, mixing them up at will. Ponty was born in a family of classical musicians on September 29, 1942 in Avranches, France. At the age of 15, he was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire, ultimately winning the premier prix at age 17. He played with the Concerts Lamoureux Orchestra for three years. A growing interest in jazz brought him to leading a dual musical life: rehearsing and performing with the orchestra while also playing jazz at clubs throughout Paris in the night. Few at the time viewed the instrument as having a legitimate place in the modern jazz vocabulary. With a powerful sound that eschewed vibrato, Jean-Luc distinguished himself with be-bop era phrasings and a punchy style influenced more by horn players than by anything previously tried on the violin; nobody had heard anything quite like it before. After a hitch in the French Army (1962-64), Ponty went completely over to the jazz camp, leading quartets and trios in Europe and visiting the Monterey Jazz Festival workshop in 1967. In the late 60s and early 70s he then toured and recorded with Frank Zappa, the George Duke Trioa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra and formed the free-jazz Jean-Luc Ponty Experience (1970-72). Afterwards he set out on his own, compiling a long series of solo albums on Atlantic. On 1991's Epic-released Tchokola, Ponty combined his acoustic and electric violins, for the first time, with the powerful polyrhythmic sounds of West Africa. In 1995, Ponty joined guitarist Al Di Meola and bassist Stanley Clarke to record an acoustic album under the name The Rite of Strings. In 1997, Jean-Luc Ponty put back together his group of Western and African musicians pursuing the new fusion he started in 1991. Ponty also performed a highly acclaimed duet with bassist Miroslav Vitous in December 99. In January 2000, he participated to Lalo Schifrin's most recent recording with a big band, Esperanto.

Discography:
1962 Oeil Vision - Club de
1964 Jazz Long Playing - Philips
1964 Les Grands Violinistes des Jazz - Phillips
1967 Sunday Walk - BASF
1969 Electric Connection - One Way
1969 King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays... - Blue Note
1969 Canteloupe Island - Blue Note
1969 Live at Donte's - Blue Note
1969 Experience - Pausa
1969 More than Meets the Ear - One Way
1969 Critic's Choice - Prestige
1970 Astrorama - Far East
1972 Live at Montreux 72 - Pierre Cardin
1973 Jean Luc Ponty and Stephane Grappelli - Verve
1973 Open Strings - BASF
1975 Upon the Wings of Music - Atlantic
1975 Aurora -Atlantic
1976 Imaginary Voyage - Atlantic
1977 Enigmatic Ocean - Atlantic
1978 Cosmic Messenger - Atlantic
1979 A Taste for Passion - Atlantic
1979 Live - Atlantic
1980 Civilized Evil - Atlantic
1981 Mystical Adventures - Atlantic
1983 Individual Choice - Atlantic
1984 Open Mind - Atlantic
1985 Fables - Atlantic
1987 The Gift of Time - Columbia
1989 California - LRC
1989 Storytelling - Columbia
1991 Jean-Luc Ponty Experience - Pausa
1991 Tchokola - Epic
1992 No Absolute Time - Atlantic
1993 The Jean-Luc Ponty with the George Duke Trio - One Way
1996 Live at Chene Park - Atlantic
2001 Jean-Luc Ponty with Kurt Edelhagen & His... - Vantage
2001 Life Enigma - JLP
2002 Live at Semper Opera - Jlp
2007 The Acatama Experience - Koch records