Jean-Luc Ponty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty at the Nice Jazz Festival in 2008
Background information
Born	(1942-09-29) 29 September 1942 (age 82) Avranches, France
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Violin, electric violin
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Atlantic, Columbia, Blue Note, Prestige, World Pacific Records, Philips, Epic, Koch, Polygram, J.L.P. Productions
Associated acts	Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Mothers of Invention, Return to Forever

Jean-Luc Ponty (born September 29, 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock music. He became famous for using the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He gained a lot of attention for working with popular musicians like Frank Zappa and Elton John. Besides his own music, he has played with big symphony orchestras in France, the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Early Life and Musical Start

Ponty was born in Avranches, France, into a family of classical musicians. His father taught violin, and his mother taught piano. When he was sixteen, he was accepted into the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. He graduated two years later with the highest honor, called Premier Prix (first prize). After that, he played for three years with the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris.

While still playing with the orchestra, Ponty also played the clarinet for a college jazz band. His father had taught him the clarinet. This side job changed his life. He became very interested in jazz artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. This led him to start playing the tenor saxophone. One night, after an orchestra concert, Ponty found himself at a local club with only his violin. Within four years, he was known as the top "jazz fiddle" player.

At that time, Ponty was living a double musical life. He rehearsed and performed with the orchestra while also playing jazz in clubs around Paris. This busy schedule eventually made him choose one path. A music critic named Joachim-Ernst Berendt once wrote that "Since Ponty, the jazz violin has been a different instrument."

Success with the Violin

At first, playing jazz on the violin was a challenge. Not many people thought the violin belonged in modern jazz music. Ponty created a powerful sound without using vibrato, which is a common violin technique. He developed a unique style influenced more by horn players than by other violinists. In 1964, at age 22, he released his first album, Jazz Long Playing. He also performed on stage in Basel, Switzerland, with other famous string players like Stuff Smith, Stéphane Grappelli, and Svend Asmussen. This performance was later released as the album Violin Summit in 1966.

John Lewis from the Modern Jazz Quartet invited Ponty to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1967. This led to a recording deal with the World Pacific label. He then released albums like Electric Connection (1969) with the Gerald Wilson Big Band and Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio (1969). That year also saw the release of Sunday Walk (1967), which was the first time Ponty worked with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

Moving to the United States

Jean-Luc Ponty at Berkeley Jazz Festival 1982

In 1969, Frank Zappa wrote music for Ponty's solo album King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (World Pacific, 1970). In 1972, Elton John asked Ponty to play on his Honky Chateau (1972) album. Zappa and his band, The Mothers of Invention, wanted Ponty to join their tour. So, Ponty moved to the United States with his wife and two young daughters. They made their home in Los Angeles. He continued to work on many different projects. These included two albums with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra: Apocalypse (1974) and Visions of the Emerald Beyond (1975). He also toured until 1975, when he signed with Atlantic.

For the next ten years, Ponty toured the world many times. He recorded 12 albums in a row, and each one reached the top five on the Billboard jazz charts. He sold millions of albums. His early Atlantic recordings, like Aurora (1976) and Imaginary Voyage (1976), showed that Ponty was a leading figure in jazz-rock. He even had albums like Enigmatic Ocean (1977) and Cosmic Messenger (1978) reach the Top 40 on the main music charts. In 1984, a video was made for his song "Individual Choice" (1983). It featured time-lapse photography of New York City and Chicago.

Besides recording and touring with his own band, Ponty played with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Radio City Orchestra in New York, and symphony orchestras in Montreal, Toronto, Oklahoma City, and Tokyo. In the late 1980s, he recorded the albums The Gift of Time (1987) and Storytelling (1989) for Columbia.

On his album Tchokola (Epic, 1991), Ponty mixed acoustic and electric violins for the first time. He combined them with the polyrhythmic sounds of West Africa. He toured for two months in the U.S. and Canada with African musicians he had met in Paris. In 1993, he returned to Atlantic with the album No Absolute Time. In 1995, he joined guitarist Al Di Meola and bassist Stanley Clarke to record an acoustic album called The Rite of Strings. This trio then went on a six-month tour across North America, South America, and Europe. He brought his American band back together in 1996 for live shows after releasing a double album for Atlantic called Le Voyage: The Jean-Luc Ponty Anthology. One of these concerts was recorded in Detroit, Michigan, on June 29, 1996. It was released in October 1996 by Atlantic as Live at Chene Park.

In 1997, Ponty reunited his group of Western and African musicians. They continued to explore the fusion music he had started in 1991. They toured for three years, from the Hawaiian Islands to Poland, and across North America and Europe. Ponty performed a duet with bassist Miroslav Vitous in December 1999. In January 2000, he played on Lalo Schifrin's recording Esperanto. In June 2001, he performed duets with Russian violinist Vadim Repin and with American jazz violinist Regina Carter at the Film Music Festival in Poland.

In August 2001, Ponty released his album Life Enigma on his own label (J.L.P. Productions). This album went back to his musical ideas from the 1970s but with modern production. He played all the instruments on some songs and was joined by his band members for others. He gave a concert with his band in his hometown of Avranches in Normandy on September 21, 2001. He was honored during a ceremony at City Hall. He then went on a tour in the U.S. in October and November 2001. In May 2001, he recorded a concert with the same musicians at the opera house in Dresden, Germany. That recording was released in July 2002 as Live at Semper Opera. In January 2003, he toured India for the first time, playing seven shows in six major cities for the Global Music Festival. This festival was organized by Indian violinist L. Subramaniam.

Ponty performed on a reunion tour with Stanley Clarke and Al Di Meola from June to October 2004 in the U.S. and Canada. In 2005, he toured with a group called Trio! with Stanley Clarke and Béla Fleck. In 2006, he brought back Jean-Luc Ponty & His Band. They toured in the U.S., Chile, Venezuela, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and India. They recorded a studio album called The Atacama Experience (2007) with guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Philip Catherine. In April 2012, Ponty performed in an acoustic trio with Clarke and guitarist Bireli Lagrene. This was the second part of a concert at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris to celebrate five decades of his music. The first part featured Ponty with a string orchestra. In 2014, he recorded a jazz album called D-Stringz with Clarke and Lagrene. In March 2014, Jon Anderson, the lead singer of Yes, announced he was forming a new band with Jean-Luc Ponty. The project was first called Inventioning. In July 2014, the band was officially introduced as the Anderson/Ponty Band.

Work with Return to Forever

In 2011, Ponty was invited by bandleader and keyboardist Chick Corea to join the group Return to Forever. They played a series of concerts throughout that year. The group was called 'Return to Forever IV', as it was the fourth version of the band. Ponty had first recorded with Corea on his 1976 solo album My Spanish Heart.

Personal Life

Ponty is married and has two daughters. One of his daughters, Clara Ponty, is a pianist and composer. Ponty has worked with Clara on several projects, including her third album, Mirror of Truth (2004).

Discography

Albums as a Leader

• Jazz Long Playing (Philips, 1964)
• Sunday Walk (SABA, 1967)
• Violin Summit with Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, Svend Asmussen (SABA, 1967)
• As Trio HLP with Daniel Humair, Eddy Louiss (All Life, 1968 [1980])
• More Than Meets the Ear (World Pacific, 1968)
• Electric Connection (World Pacific, 1969)
• Live at Donte's (Blue Note/UA, 1969 [1981])
• Jean-Luc Ponty Experience with the George Duke Trio (World Pacific, 1969)
• King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (World Pacific, 1970)
• Astrorama [live] with Masahiko Sato (Far East/Toshiba EMI, 1970)
• New Violin Summit with Don "Sugar Cane" Harris, Michal Urbaniak (MPS/BASF, 1971)
• Open Strings (MPS/BASF, 1971)
• Live at Montreux 72 (Pierre Cardin, 1972)
• Ponty/Grappelli with Stephane Grappelli (America, 1973)
• Jean-Luc Ponty Meets Giorgio Gaslini (Pausa, 1973 [1976])
• Upon the Wings of Music (Atlantic, 1975)
• Aurora (Atlantic, 1976)
• Cantaloupe Island (Blue Note/UA, 1976)
• Imaginary Voyage (Atlantic, 1976)
• Enigmatic Ocean (Atlantic, 1977)
• Cosmic Messenger (Atlantic, 1978)
• Live (Atlantic, 1979)
• A Taste for Passion (Atlantic, 1979)
• Civilized Evil (Atlantic, 1980)
• Mystical Adventures (Atlantic, 1982)
• Individual Choice (Atlantic, 1983)
• Open Mind (Atlantic, 1984)
• Fables (Atlantic, 1985)
• The Gift of Time (Columbia, 1987)
• Storytelling (Columbia, 1989)
• Puss in Boots with Tracey Ullman (Rabbit Ears/BMG Kidz, 1991)
• Tchokola (Epic, 1991)
• Volume 1 with Daniel Humair, Eddy Louiss (Dreyfus, 1991)
• Volume 2 with Daniel Humair, Eddy Louiss (Dreyfus, 1991)
• No Absolute Time (Atlantic, 1993)
• The Rite of Strings with Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola (Gai Saber/I.R.S., 1995)
• Live at Chene Park (Atlantic, 1996)
• Life Enigma (J.L.P. Productions, 2001)
• Live at Semper Opera (Le Chant Du Monde, 2002)
• Jean-Luc Ponty in Concert (Le Chant Du Monde, 2003)
• The Atacama Experience (Koch, 2007)
• D-Stringz with Stanley Clarke, Bireli Lagrene (Impulse!, 2015)
• Better Late Than Never with Jon Anderson (Ear Music, 2015)

Albums as a Sideman

With Chick Corea

• My Spanish Heart (Polydor, 1976)
• Chick Corea (Polydor, 1987)
• Music Forever & Beyond (GRP, 1996)
• Forever (Concord, 2011)

With Mahavishnu Orchestra

• Apocalypse (Columbia, 1974)
• Visions of the Emerald Beyond (Columbia, 1975)
• The Mahavishnu Orchestra & John McLaughlin (Amiga, 1979)

With Frank Zappa

• Hot Rats (Bizarre/Reprise, 1969)
• The Mothers, Over-Nite Sensation (Discreet/Reprise, 1973)
• Apostrophe (Discreet/Reprise, 1974)
• Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar (Barking Pumpkin, 1981)
• You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6 (Rykodisc, 1992)
• The Lost Episodes (Rykodisc, 1996)
• One Shot Deal (Zappa Records, 2008)
• Road Tapes, Venue 2 (Vaulternative, 2013)
• The Crux Of The Biscuit (Zappa Records, 2016)

With Others

• Inventioning, Some People (Michael Lewis/Blue Street Artists, 2021)
• Jon Anderson, 1000 Hands: Chapter One (Opio Media, 2019)
• Sam Bush, Laps in Seven (Sugar Hill, 2006)
• Michel Colombier, Wings (A&M 1971)
• Wolfgang Dauner, Free Action (SABA, 1967)
• George Duke, Night After Night (Elektra, 1989)
• Serge Gainsbourg, Histoire De Melody Nelson (Light in the Attic, 2009)
• George Gruntz, Barock ... & Jazz-Sechs (Electrola, 1966)
• George Gruntz, Noon in Tunisia (SABA, 1967)
• Andre Hodeir, Anna Livia Plurabelle (Philips, 1966)
• Elton John, Honky Chateau (UNI, 1972)
• Jeff Lorber, Hacienda (Heads Up, 2013)
• Clara Ponty, Mirror of Truth (Eden, 2005)
• Clara Ponty, Into the Light (Le Chant Du Monde, 2010)
• Return to Forever, The Mothership Returns (Eagle 2012)
• Lalo Schifrin, Esperanto (Aleph, 2000)
• Alan Sorrenti, Aria (Harvest, 1972)
• Gerald Wilson, Eternal Equinox (World Pacific, 1969)

Films

• 1999: L. Subramaniam: Violin from the Heart (Directed by Jean Henri Meunier; includes a scene with Ponty and L. Subramaniam performing together)

See also

In Spanish: Jean-Luc Ponty para niños