Jean-Luc Ponty - Live Jazz Violin
Here’s a video of Jean-Luc Ponty, playing a song called “Rhythms of Hope”, followed by another — simply called “Jig”.
My friend Mark Rehban (the Web 2.0 advertising genius) recommended that I check out Jean-Luc Ponty, since several of my children play violin, viola, and cello. So I found a few of Jean-Luc’s recordings and gave them a spin.
Ponty (born in France in 1942) is a virtuoso violinist and jazz composer. He studied violin under his father, and at the Paris Conservatory.
One can easily discern that Ponty studied classical music. However, by the mid-60s he had moved towards jazz. Influenced by Miles Davis’s and John Coltrane’s music, Ponty adopted the electric violin. Critic Joachim Berendt said “Since Ponty, the jazz violin has been a different instrument” and commends his “brilliance and fire”.
Ponty was among the first to combine the violin with MIDI, distortion boxes, and phase shifters. In 1967 he appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Ponty has worked with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa, and played on many other recordings. His symphonic style — drifting towards jazz fusion — made him a popular jazz fusion artist of the 1970’s.
Tags: electric violin, jazz, jazz fusion, MIDI, music, video, violin, violinist