The Musical Box Tribute Band
It would seem almost demeaning to refer to the career of perhaps the most influential jazz violinist of his generation as accidental. But the word the landmark French instrumentalist continually uses to describe the musical paths he has followed for over 45 years is “unplanned.”
His switch from a classically reared youth to an adulthood of jazz? That wasn’t in the cards. The adventures in amplifying music for rock-like settings on a string of top selling albums for Atlantic Records in the ‘70s and ‘80s? Ponty didn’t see that coming, either. A collaborative project with East African musicians and an eventual return to acoustic jazz once his electric popularity was established? Who would have thought?
Such avenues, it turns out, have simply been part of a creative drive that has long fueled the recording and performance careers of Ponty, who performs his first-ever Lexington concert on Saturday at the Singletary Center for the Arts.
“That’s the excitement of being able to create,” Ponty, 67, said in an early morning phone interview recently from Paris. “From the time I got a recording contract with Atlantic in 1975 and was really able to put my composing skills to work, I have considered myself first a bandleader/composer using myself and my violin abilities as simply voices in the band. It was never about putting me in front of the band. Being a voice in that sound was always more important.”
+ + + + + +
The classical youth: Born in Avranches, France, Ponty graduated at age 17 from the esteemed Conservatorie National Superieur de Musique de Paris with its highest honors before joining the equally championed Parisian symphony, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux.
“My dream was to become a classical conductor. But I discovered jazz - bebop, specifically - in the early ‘60s in Paris. People there showed such a passion for this music that I eventually left classical music to become a jazz musician. So, already, one of the first steps in my career was unplanned.”
Initially, though, Ponty didn’t approach jazz through the violin, but by playing clarinet. He was taught to play the instrument by his father while Ponty’s mother instructed him on piano.
“There was a band of non professional musicians at a university in Paris that played in a swing style like Benny Goodman. It played at parties there at the university and began looking for a clarinetist. I knew nothing about jazz at that point. I had heard of Louis Armstrong and New Orleans music, but that was all. But they hired me because I could improvise immediately at the audition.
“They said, ‘OK. You know nothing about jazz, but you have a good ear. So we will hire you.’ And they taught me all of the jazz standards of the time. They taught me to shut up when the other guy was soloing and wait for my turn. That’s when I started buying records and discovering how jazz has evolved since Benny Goodman. I discovered Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk
“That’s how everything started.”
+ + + + + +
In Grappelli’s footsteps: France already had claim to the previous generation’s greatest jazz violinist, Stephane Grappelli. But by the mid ‘60s, Grappelli’s career had quieted. Realizing that a more defining musical voice awaited him on violin than clarinet, Ponty switched to strings.
“It came to his Stephane’s ears that there was the crazy young violinist jamming in clubs and playing what was then modern jazz. So he was intrigued.”
Ponty and Grappelli played and recorded together sporadically in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. But as Ponty’s own jazz voice evolved, so did the need for amplification. Once electricity for his music was discovered, attention came pouring in from outside of jazz circles.
In quick succession came an alliance with composer/guitarist Frank Zappa, a guest role on one of Elton John’s finest albums (1972’s Honky Chateau), a violin chair in John McLaughlin’s second Mahavishnu Orchestra and a move from Paris to Los Angeles.
Lexington violinist Zach Brock, who now lives and works in New York, performs with, among other ensembles, a Mahavishnu tribute band aptly titled the Mahavishnu Project. The group has several times performed, in its entirety, the 1975 Mahavishnu/Ponty album Visions of the Emerald Beyond.
“That gave me a chance to play Jean-Luc’s awesome, unbelievable baritone intro on violin with wah-wah pedal for the first tune (Eternity’s Breath),” Brock said. “It’s one of the scariest things ever played.
“Jean-Luc is simply the living legend, the pioneer king of jazz violin. Period. So many things on the violin would have just never happened if it wasn’t for the path he was forging.”
+ + + + + +
Atlantic, Africa and beyond: With the release of 1975’s Upon the Wings of Music, Ponty began a string of albums for the Atlantic label that would come to define his journeys into amplified fusion music. Some efforts were densely layered, rock-ish recordings (1978’s Cosmic Messenger). Others were largely one man band works with computerized synthesizer arrangements serving as backdrops for the still organic sound of Ponty’s violin melodies (1983’s Open Mind). And, in one sublime case, an album (1976’s Imaginary Voyage) yielded a hoedown-like hit called New Country. In recent decades, new generation string stylists Mark O’ Connor and Bowling Green native/Kentucky Music Hall of Fame inductee Sam Bush have cut their own versions of New Country. Bush’s 2006 recording even featured Ponty as a guest instrumentalist.
“I just think Jean-Luc is the most influential jazz-rock violin player ever,” Bush said following a taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour earlier this week where he performed New Country. “He’s a generous guy, a wonderful musician. His timing is beautiful. His intonation is great. I have only good things to say about Jean-Luc.”
“Even though I had more musical adventures after the Atlantic albums, they still form the base of who I am as a composer” Ponty said. “I had gone though all these experiences of classical music, jazz and progressive rock. So I wanted to create my own music where I could incorporate all these elements. On these albums, I felt like someone who travels musically.
“Then I moved on to that project with the East African musicians (1992’s Tchokola, cut after Ponty jumped labels from Atlantic to Epic) and the Rite of Strings (an acoustic trio featuring fellow fusion stars Stanley Clarke and Al DiMeola which released a self-titled album in 1995). These projects kept me alert as a musician.”
Ponty’s most recent recording, The Acatama Experience, finds him playing largely acoustically. But his current touring band - a streamlined ensemble featuring keyboardist William Lecomte, drummer Damien Schmitt (both from France) and bassist Baron Browne (a Georgia native) - is versed in Ponty compositions dating back to his 1977 album Enigmatic Ocean.
“I can only be thankful for this musical life I’ve had,” Ponty said. “It went beyond what I could have hoped for.
“You know, I really didn’t expect to have this much fun.”
Jean-Luc Ponty and His Band perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Singletary Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25, $28 and $32. Call (859) 257-4929.
Kind of weird that my second entry about a live show should be one about a tribute band.
I'll get back to the autobiographical posts when I get a chance....but the first bands I was ever in were all cover bands - this would be from 9th grade right through 12th grade. My metal band in 12th grade - Phoenix - had one original song ("Please Say Yes")...(you can all laugh - it's fine)....but I wasn't in a band that played only originals until I was a freshman in college.
As a guy who has now only been in original bands (save for the occasional cover song) - there's a part that now cringes at the idea of cover bands or - as has become quite the trend in recent years - TRIBUTE bands....a cover band that exclusively devotes itself to one single band....even often going so far as to duplicate the clothing, hair styles and even between-song banter that you would see if you actually went to see the real band themselves.
I've seen a handful of tribute bands over the years - not too many.
I saw Bad Animals a few years back - a tribute to Heart (they actually featured Mark Mendoza from Twisted Sister on bass)....some Pat Benatar tribute.....and an AC/DC tribute band.
The best tribute band I've seen (well - maybe up until now) - was The Australian Pink Floyd show.
I have very mixed feelings about seeing a band who's sole goal is to duplicate a band you are already presumably a fan of. I figure - if you're already a band and can play well - why not just write your own stuff?
The musician side of me can't help but turn my nose down to it a little bit.
However - the fan side of me can see where a tribute band can be kind of fun.
If you view a band not just as a group of specific people....but rather as an entire experience - then I suppose seeing a band duplicate Genesis' "Trick of the Tail" tour is really no different than seeing "Hamlet" in 2009....I mean - really - is it?
Does the fact that Shakespeare and his original troupe of actors are long dead bother anyone enough that they would just REFUSE to ever see Hamlet....and they would only enjoy the play by reading the script?
That seems absurd to me.
So if that seems absurd to me....I guess I really should have no problem with tribute bands.
I'm never going to see Genesis in 1976.....I'm certainly never going to see Pink Floyd again as Richard Wright is dead (his death still makes me sad)....but why should I deny myself the Pink Floyd EXPERIENCE....if it's there to be had....and had in a very high quality kind of way?
So - I went to see The Musical Box with some friends who are a part of my "hockey world" (i.e. fellow diehard Islanders fans who I hang out with in the virtual world of the Islander Mania message board - and hang out with in real life at Isles games and tailgates).
The show was at one of the BEST venues on the planet to see a show at: the legendary Westbury Music Fair.
OK - technically - the place is called The Capital One Theatre at Westbury....but to any Long Islander - the place will always & only ever be known as the Westbury Music Fair.
The Fair is a 2700-seat theater where the stage is in the middle....it's like a small indoor amphitheater. The audience is the donut and the stage is the hole.
When the full theater is being used - the stage will slowly rotate during the show so that the audience gets every angle - probably about 3 or 4 times - over the course of the show.
For the Musical Box, they closed off half the theatre - so they played to half-a-donut and the stage did not move.
The Musical Box (named for a Genesis song that was NOT played at this show) came on stage looking & dressing exactly like what I imagine Genesis actually did look like back in 1976....right down to the clothes (the white overalls with the Boston Bruins logo that Bill Bruford used to wear) & facial hair (the sort of ratty Butch Goring-esque facial hair that Phil Collins sported). I have no doubt that even the between-song banter was duplicated.
One thing I didn't realize until after the show was over was that they actually had TWO Phil Collins'...one guy up front doing the lead vocals - and another guy who played his drum parts....from my perspective - it looked like it was the same guy going back & forth between the drums & the mic - but that was not the case.
I'm bad at doing "reviews" - so I'm really not going to bother - this blog is more about my own personal experience with music and my reaction & impression - not to be a reviewer. But if you wanted to see a recreation of a Genesis show from 1976 - I'd have to think you wouldn't have been disappointed (of course - as I turned 3 in 1976, I wasn't there to witness the real thing to draw a comparison).
anyway - here was the setlist....
Dance on a Volcano
the Lamb medley: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway/Fly on a Windshield/Carpet Crawlers
The Cinema Show
Robbery, Assault & Battery
White Mountain
Firth of Fifth
Entangled/Squonk
Supper's Ready
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Los Endos
Encore:
It/Watcher of the Skies
Now go watch the REAL Genesis play Dance on a Volcano - live from JFK Stadium on the Three Sides Live tour - 1982.
