The album title suite is just a prog masterpiece. And its one of my all time fav cover album art; just Gorgeous scenery. The last track "JIG" is Ponty violin Bliss.
Any fans????
The album title suite is just a prog masterpiece. And its one of my all time fav cover album art; just Gorgeous scenery. The last track "JIG" is Ponty violin Bliss.
Any fans????
Are you kidding? I'd think anyone who's listened to this would be a fan. The 7th of Ponty's incredible run of albums starting with 1975's Aurora. Mystical Adventures also has the last of the long form suites and it's his only album before the African styled ones that has both a drummer, Rayford Griffin, and a percussionist, Paulinho DaCosta.
The 1982 tour is also worth checking out, Allan Zavod came back to play keyboards. There's a good quality video from the Montreal jazz fest that has every song from the album except Stevie Wonder's "As".
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aRWNSjTB0mg
Last edited by Wah3; 10-28-2015 at 11:06 PM.
Mystical Adventures was the first in a string of a half dozen Ponty albums where he centered his compositions around his own synthesizer work. I preferred it when he had the band more thoroughly integrated into the music, but they were still excellent.
It also has Keith Jones on bass, who's not on the APB album but he's reportedly on the tour.Originally Posted by Wah3
I video taped the Monteral Jazz Fest performance off PBS about a million years ago (well, 25 years ago, actually, if I remember correctly it actually aired the same weekend as my prom, which I skipped out on so I could go see Hawkwind).
And I always like to point that several of Ponty's albums from this era (including this one, I believe) featured Randy Jackson on bass, way before his American Idol days (and even before his stint in Journey).
Perhaps my favorite Ponty album, but I love all of them from Wings of Music through this one. Unfortunately, I do feel this was the last in his run of really great albums, though his stuff after this is often good, but to me somewhat uneven and not as "reaching." Thinking back Mystical Adventures was probably my gateway to Ponty, and I worked backward from there, so perhaps that is why I like this one so much.
Bill
It is one of the two Jean Luc Ponty albums I own on vinyl and I still like it very much.
This was my first Ponty purchase (on vinyl) and I love it! Really need to buy a digital copy. This and Enigmatic Oceans got continuous play in my house in the mid-late 80's. Just a beautiful album.
"I want to be someone, who someone would want to be." Marillion
I love it and still have my original vinyl. This was the last Ponty album I bought. I was already familiar with his earlier stuff, and while I missed Ralphe Armstrong, I thought the new guy Randy Jackson did a great job. I couldn't believe he ended up in Journey for a while, and then... Idol? Wow. Guess I didn't know he had become a big time producer. But yeah, great record.
Great album, but I've always thought Enigmatic Oceans was his strongest. I should get myself on a Ponty kick soon and revisit these.
Randy Jackson did a lot of session work in the 80's. He played on the Blue Oyster Cult song Shooting Shark. Then when Narada Michael Walden started producing...well, they call it R&B music, but I think it's demeaning to put the likes of Whitney Houston in the same sentence as say Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross. But anyway, when NMW started producing those sort of records, he dragged some of his fusion buddies with him, including Randy and Corrado Rustici. And I guess from there, Randy went from playing on such sessions to producing them, which in turn led to him sitting next to that twat Cowell.
Cool vid, thanks for sharing. I've been on a little bit of a Stuermer kick lately, and I feel like I should check out some Ponty.
flute juice
Yup. I don't really know what else to call it - urban pop?
Walter Afanasieff also took the Ponty -> Whitney Houston, Paula Abdul, Mariah Carey -> even worse route. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Afanasieff
Not my favorite of his but good. I put Enigmatic Ocean and Imaginary Voyage ahead of it.
Also a big fan of individual Choice, Cosmic Messenger and Civilized Evil.
FYI Ponty played Jig live with APB this week. Was sooooo damn good to hear him live again.
JG
"MARKLAR!"
This is a good one, but I put the four prior above it in my mind.
People always seem to give A Taste For Passion short shrift. My theory is that the song titles and cover picture make people think it's his Love Beach, but it's not.
That's a fantastic record! I remember borrowing from the library back in the mid 80's. I LOVE In Spite Of All, great track with a cool chord progression, very sweet bass line (again played by Randy Jackson), and a super cool cameo from that Allan Holdsworth guy. I actually had that on a mix tape that also had stuff from Jane Siberry, Guiffria, and I think there was some Tony MacAlpine on that tape too.
The radio industry nomenclature is "Urban Contemporary", which is as good a phrase as any other. It draws parallels to "Adult Contemporary" (ie "soft rock") and "Smooth Jazz" (ie NOT jazz!).
I once told someone I was into the old Motown, Stax, etc stuff, and she said "Oh, you mean Old School R&B", which I guess it was it is now. I just know something happened in R&B sometime in the mid 80's. Even in the early 80's, there were records like Thriller and Heatwave's Candles that were pretty awesome. Hell, I'll even take those those Lionel Ritchie records, there were good songs on those (but then I like Dancing On The Ceiling, take that to mean whatever you want).
Then all of a sudden, the genre went down the toilet. And no, it wasn't just because of rap. There were a lot of lame records that didn't seem to have much hip hop influence that just mad me go, "Really?!". I mean, honestly, What! The! FRELL!!!!! HAPPENED?!?!?!?!
Wasn't Patrice Rushen also in Ponty's band at one point? She had a big hit in the 80's called Forget Me Not (which was later sampled on Will Smith's Men In Black, which apparently she got a big paycheck from because she refused to sign the release until they negotiated a publishing percentage).
Lots of jazz and fusion people took that route. It makes more sense when you're talking about someone like George Duke or Narada Michael Walden, because they probably had some R&B background to begin with. And as Steve F pointed out, if it made sense for someone like Phil Collins to do what he did in the 80's, then it also makes sense that George Duke ended up producing Deniece Williams (during which time George apparently demonstrated his inability to pick a hit single).
And I think that's a fair point. I would have expected those guys to go back to playing straight jazz music (as Herbie Hancock eventually did), but I guess if you're trying to stay in the music business and not having to resort to taking teaching gigs or NAMM demonstration gigs, you conform to whatever the marketplace dictates. And for those guys, urban contemporary music filled that role. (shrug)
Speaking Herbie, it may be a far cry from Sextant or even Headhunters, but I still Rockit is a pretty cool track.
Last edited by GuitarGeek; 10-30-2015 at 07:10 PM.
It’s funny, Ponty’s music in general leaves me pretty cold. He has this virtuosic but very cold and clinical playing style that does little for me (well, there’s his solo on Mahavishnu’s “Be Happy.” I guess John put something under him to get him to play like that.). His tendency to soak his sound in tons of effects-pedals just waters his playing down, IMO. And yes, I know, that’s what a lot of people come to him for. There’s occasional songs that spark my interest (like “Egocentric Molecules” off of...I forget what right now. His 70s albums are a bit of a blur to me.) but it mainly strikes me as very...what is the word? Anodyne, I think.
...And then there’s this album. The album where he tries to make some sort of species of ambient electronics married to fusion. For some reason, this album works for me whereas his previous ones don’t. I think it’s because he finally broke out of his “Mahavishnu-very-lite” phase and tried something completely out of the box. Also: Chris Rhyne plays on it, and I recently mentioned him in another thread.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
The Final Truth is the best tune on the album for my ears. I never tire of the melody and great solos. The piano player is a bad ass!
Yes. In fact, looking up the personnel of the album Upon The Wings Of Music, it has at least three people who were involved in r&b by the 80's.
Jean-Luc Ponty – electric violin, violectra, acoustic violins, strings synthesizer
Dan Sawyer – electric guitar
Ray Parker Jr. – electric guitar, guitar solos
Patrice Rushen – electric piano, acoustic piano, synthesizer, organ, clavinet
Ralphe Armstrong – bass guitar, electric bass
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler – drums, Remo roto toms, percussion
OK, I know the second you're talking about is Ray Parker Jr. Whose the third?
Actually, Ray Parker Jr was involved in R&B music to begin with. His first major gig, as a teenager, was playing guitar in Stevie Wonder's band. Youtube search "Stevie Wonder Sesame Street Superstition" and you'll see Ray standing behind Stevie, playing a red ES-335.
Ndugu was the drummer on "Billie Jean."
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