Tuesday 8 August 2017

Ponty. Jean Luc - Aurora (1976)


The seventh album from this French artist.

Jean Luc Ponty on violins had help from a quartet on this album. They provided guitars, bass, drums, percussions, pianos and synths.

Jean Luc Ponty album debuted back in 1964. He did not really make it big before he joined Frank Zappa's Mother Of Invention and in particular; the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He did a brilliant job on their Acocalypse and Visions of Emerald Beyond. They are still two of the best fusion albums of all time. His name came to my attention on those two albums and on the not so interesting Anderson Ponty album. Yes, I am a bit slow in the uptake.

So I have now got a dozen of his albums and will review them asap/you will find reviews of some of his other albums somewhere else in this blog and here.

I was not impressed by his Frank Zappa tribute album (see link above). But I knew that his proper solo albums would be another kettle of fish. And so Aurora has proved.

The main instrument here is Jean Luc Ponty's acoustic and electric violin. The guitars and keyboards, piano and synth, supports the violins and does it in a brilliant manner.

It does also help that the music is very good and I am again reminded how much I like those two Ponty era Mahavishnu Orchestra albums. The music on Aurora is a lot more laidback though. But this album are still swinging like a sailboat in a storm.

I think I have again got myself a new hero here as this is a very good album. 

3.5 points


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