Jean-Luc Ponty - In Concert (Vinyl)

180 Gram Double LP

MPS presents Jean-Luc Ponty's set at the Jazz Jamboree festival in Warsaw, recorded on October 23, 1999, at the Sala Kongresowa, as a two-record vinyl edition. The nine performances run across two 180-gram discs under catalog number 0221124MSW.

Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska filmed the concert, and the footage became Ponty's first DVD, with the audio also issued on CD. Speaking to Tarisio, Ponty identified the instrument heard here as his wood-finish Zeta Jazz Fusion electric violin, the model he took on tour until the late 1990s.

The band is the group of Western and African musicians Ponty reassembled in 1997 to continue the fusion direction he had opened with Tchokola in 1991, a lineup that toured for three years from the Hawaiian Islands to Poland. On this night that meant William Lecomte on keyboards, Guy Nsangué Akwa on bass, Thierry Arpino on drums and Moustapha Cissé on percussion. Nsangué shares the writing credit on "Mouna Bowa," and Ponty's own notes list "Memories of California" as a new composition at the time.

Several titles reach back to his Atlantic catalog: "No Absolute Time" and "Open Mind" share their names with his 1993 and 1984 albums, and "Enigmatic Ocean" with the 1977 record that took him into the Top 40. The vinyl issue also returns Ponty to MPS, the label for which he cut Open Strings at the MPS studio in Villingen in 1971.

Tracklist

1. Rhythms of Hope
2. Jig
3. No Absolute Time
4. Pastoral Harmony
5. Caracas
6. Memories of California
7. Mouna Bowa
8. Enigmatic Ocean (Part II)
9. Open Mind