Jean Luc Ponty : Enigmatic Ocean 1977

Jean-Luc Ponty is a pioneer and undisputed master of violin in the arena of jazz and rock. He is widely regarded as an innovator who has applied his unique visionary spin that has expanded the vocabulary of modern music.

Ponty was born in a family of classical musicians on September 29, 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano.

While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side gig playing clarinet (which his father had taught him) for a college jazz band that regularly performed at local parties. It proved a life-changing jumping-off point. A growing interest in the jazz sounds of Miles Davis and John Coltrane compelled him to take up the tenor saxophone. Fueled by an all-encompassing creative passion, Jean-Luc soon felt the need to express his jazz voice through his main instrument, the violin.

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.

Ponty's notoriety grew with remarkable leaps and by 1964, at age 22, he released his debut solo album for Philips, Jazz Long Playing.

In 1969, Frank Zappa composed the music for Jean-Luc's solo album King Kong (Blue Note). In 1972, Elton John invited Ponty to contribute to his Honky Chateau #1 hit album . Within a year - at the urging of Zappa and the Mothers of Invention who wanted him to join their tour

Early Atlantic recordings, such as 1976's Aurora and Imaginary Voyage, firmly established him as a figurehead in America's growing jazz-rock movement. He went on to crack the top 40 in 1977 with the Enigmatic Ocean album and again in 1978 with Cosmic Messenger. In 1984, a revolutionary video featuring time lapse images was produced by Louis Schwarzberg for Individual Choice. Along with Herbie Hancock, Ponty became one of the first jazz musicians to have a music video.

Tracks :

1. Overture – 0:47
2. The Trans-Love Express – 3:59
3. Mirage – 4:53
4. Enigmatic Ocean - Part I – 2:23
5. Enigmatic Ocean - Part II – 3:35
6. Enigmatic Ocean - Part III – 3:42
7. Enigmatic Ocean - Part IV – 2:26
8. Nostalgic Lady – 5:24
9. The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea - Part I – 3:35
10. The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea - Part II – 3:34
11. The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea - Part III – 6:03

Jean-Luc Ponty – electric violin, five-string electric violin, violectra, bells, grand piano on Nostalgic Lady
Allan Holdsworth – lead electric guitar
Daryl Stuermer – lead and rhythm electric guitar
Allan Zavod – organ, synthesizer, electric piano, grand piano, clavinet
Ralphe Armstrong – electric basses, fretless bass
Steve Smith – drums and percussion

Year 1977
Chart Position :
Billboard Jazz Albums N0 .1
Billboard Pop Albums N0. 35


Size : 98 MB
Bitrate : 320

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