I don't have too much to say about the genre of new Jazz fusion other than to point out certain tracks by Jean-Luc Ponty that absolutely stand out. Check out if you can, "No More Doubts" from his otherwise unremarkable 1987 album The Gift of Time. Jean-Luc Ponty helped to popularize the electric violin playing with frank Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. But it is his experiments with the synclavier that you can hear some true brilliance shining beyond his potent violin capabilities. Long I searched for another track by him sounding anything close to this with dismay... it was even my impetus for beginning to collect vinyl in college (a cheap way of sampling music on a budget before file sharing on the Internets); Ponty records usually went for 99 cents in the throwaway bins. I even emailed Ponty to ask him for help. (He suggested my buying his latest album). If only he had suggested a few tracks from his early works.These are haunting abstract tunes that pierce something deeper. If you appreciate "No More Doubts" let me recommend "Elephants in Love" on his 1985 album Fables. (The rest of the album aint too shabby, neither.) Then, if you're still hungry for frenetic electro-jazz try "Cosmic Messenger," "Don't Let the World Pass You By" and "Egocentric Molecules" from the album Cosmic Messenger (1978). Audio cocaine, I tells ya. Go listen!
Posted on 07/04/2006
Comments
Comment on this Post
Login using email and password below.
My Trusted MOGs
I'm in agreement about Ponty. Audio cocaine. I first heard him when I was midway through college in 1987. My favorite album is Taste For Passion. I listened to it non-stop during a very tumultuous time, and it proved uplifting and bittersweet. The soaring sounds were unlike any I'd heard before. I've not heard more recent songs by him, and while I have three or four tapes, I have yet to get CD's. I do have it downloaded digitally, though.
My Trusted MOGs
I don't know ponty but what a great write up, keep going.
My Trusted MOGs
This sounds pretty promising to me right now and I should visit. You are a Zappa fan, so certainly you know about the record in the following one-sentence anecdote: As a kid, listening to as many of my parents' records as I could (many of them many times), I would often put on (or at least be fascinated by the liner notes of) the record King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa. I should revisit that album, too.
My Trusted MOGs
Actually, I'm not too familiar with Zappa beyond Francesco Zappa (and I've read elesewhere that that album might be his least favorite work among many Zappa fans). I'm too ignorant to generalize from the little else I heard, but if you could recomend other pieces by Zappa that are more beautiful than artfully ironic, I'd really appreciate it.
My Trusted MOGs
Well, he's done plenty of classical music. I haven't heard Francesco (and I should) but you might check out a couple discs he did. One of them is called The Perfect Stranger as conducted by Boulez (with a couple of synclavier pieces stuck in), and another is The Yellow Shark as performed by the Ensemble Modern. From what I can recollect, The Yellow Shark is especially recommended.
My Trusted MOGs
I found The Yellow Shark very challenging to listen through, probably because I'm not a musician, because I also find improv-jazz artists like Eugene Chadbourne hard to grasp... at least on recording. Chadbourne's musical antics were plenty of fun to listen to and watch in person. Thanks for The Perfect Stranger tip -- I will check that out!
My Trusted MOGs
Ah, so you might find the same thing about Perfect Stranger, then. So Francesco is less modernist? I'm very curious now...
My Trusted MOGs
Francesco is like Wendy Carlos piped through a synclavier instead of a moog. Francesco is not Frank... it is Francesco, the rather obscure 18th century composer. Of course, it sounds like just the sort of obscure joke that Frank Zappa would unleash on his audience, resulting in deep puzzlement among fans. It would be nice to hear Francesco Zappa on acoustic instrumentation for comparison... and also the moog. On Frank Zappa's synclavier, Francesco sounds a bit chimey.