Jean Luc Ponty is a French-born jazz violinist whose pioneering work has seen him ranked along side the renowned Stéphane Grappelli.
The young Ponty wanted to be a concert violinist, so much so he left school at the age of 13 to concentrate on music. By the age of 17 he had earned a place in an orchestra, where he played for three years. During this time he was being seduced by jazz, and by 1967 he had recorded with Stéphane Grappelli on the Violin Summit album.
With the changes in music and society that came in the 60s, Ponty’s trip to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 brought changes for him too, and he found a kindred spirit in Frank Zappa. He recorded the King Kong album with Zappa before returning to France to form his own experimental band.
On his return to the States he played with the Mothers of Invention and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, before embarking on his solo career in 1975. A series of albums for Atlantic, commencing with Upon the Wings of Music, carried on the jazz fusion ideals of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
1983’s Individual Choice album marked another change for Ponty, when his use of effects pedals and loops took his music in a new direction. He developed this theme over subsequent releases, though changed again in 1991 with Tchokola. The album took its influences from Africa and included West African musicians on the recording. Since then he has made forays back to jazz and in 2005 joined with Stanley Clarke and Béla Fleck in the acoustic fusion group TRIO!.
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