Jean-Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (1978)

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Jean-Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (1978)

Post by Cortex » 24 Apr 2008, 14:57

.................................................... JEAN-LUC PONTY - COSMIC MESSENGER

Cover:..........................................................Image



...................................................................O muzicharima koji su svirali na albumu:


Jean-Luc Ponty...............................................Image(Five-string electric violin, electric violin, organ, lead synthesizer, orchestron, acoustic violin)

" Ponty was born in a family of classical musicians on September 29, 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. He left school at 13 in order to practice six hours a day in the hope of becoming a concert violinist. At sixteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, graduating two years later with the institution's highest award, Premier Prix. In turn, he was immediately hired by one of the major symphony orchestras, Concerts Lamoureux, where he played for three years.

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.

So it was that Ponty found himself leading a dual musical life: rehearsing and performing with the orchestra while also playing jazz until 3 AM at clubs throughout Paris. The demands of this doomed schedule eventually brought him to a crossroads. "Naturally, I had to make a choice, so I took a chance with jazz", says Jean-Luc. ( SRECOM PO NAS! :) )

At first, the violin proved to be a handicap; few at the time viewed the instrument as having a legitimate place in the modern jazz vocabulary. 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. Critics said then that he was the first jazz violinist to be as exciting as a saxophonist. He switched over to electric violin and augmented it with devices that were associated with electric guitarists and keyboardists, like Echoplex machines, distortion boxes, phase shifters, and wah-wah pedals.

Classically trained, with an unquenchable ability to swing when he wants to, and consumed by a passion for tight structures and repeating ostinatos, Ponty has been able to handle styles as diverse as swing, bop, free and modal jazz, jazz-rock, world music, and even country, mixing them up at will... "

Ralphe Armstrong:............................................Image(electric bass, fretless electric bass)

" In 1973, Ralphe Armstrong - a 17-year-old Detroit kid just out of high school - tried out for a gig with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. "The other person who auditioned at the same time was Jaco Pastorius," he says. "Jaco had a different sound then; he had an old, beat-up fretted Fender Precision, as I recall. I got the job because I played fretless."
Armstrong was classically trained during his four years at Michigan's Interlochen School of Fine Arts, where he studied the Josef Harvey method; later, he transferred his acoustic technique to electric while also putting up some ferocious funk on a trio of powerful mid-'70s Mahavishnu recordings: Apocalypse, Visions of the Emerald Beyond, and Inner Worlds...
For all of those aggressive yet extraordinarily intricate fusion outings from the '70s, Armstrong played a Fender Jazz Bass with a fretless Precision neck through a chain of archaic effects pedals that gave him an especially nasty edge on his solos. (For a taste, check out his rampaging, distortion-laced solo on "The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea, Part III" from Ponty's Enigmatic Ocean.) "I used a device called a Maestro Bass Brassmaster," he recalls. "It was supposed to make the bass sound like a trombone, but it sounded more like Jimi Hendrix. I used that in conjunction with a Morley wah-wah pedal and a Maestro octave box. It was good for its time...
Having spent most of the 1980's raising his children he has returned to playing around Detroit and teaching at the Oberlin Conservatory."

Mark Craney:............................................Image(drums, percussion)

" I started drumming the summer of my 12th year. The Christmas before that, I became a diabetic, and my parents were thinking, "Wow, poor Mark. He's going to have a plagued life; let's find something for him." So they bought me a set of drums. My dad brought them home and set them up backwards. My mother said she knew that first night that drumming would be what I would do with my life.

Growing up in South Dakota, I was isolated and couldn't see my favorite drummers to emulate them. I guess that's how I got a style of my own. I never had any lessons. I tried in eighth grade, but by then I was playing traditional grip left-handed, and the teacher said, "You're right-handed; you have to play like this." And he tried to change me over. So that was my one drum lesson in life...

I got the Jean Luc Ponty gig in January, 1976, within a month of moving to LA. That year, I recorded my first album, Imaginary Voyage, and toured the world. I was with Jean Luc for 9 months, and it was a challenge. It took everything I had to keep up with them.

When Jean Luc started to rehearse it was, "Okay, poly-rhythms in 19/8…then bang, we'd do that and then, "Okay…here's another in 5/4." We'd do that and then, "Okay…" I loved it. It was good being 23 and playing all over the world with a premier jazz artist. It was the workout I had been waiting for. I used a set of clear Fibes Plexiglass, double bass, two racks and two floor toms. I quit when Tommy Bolin offered me more money...

Mark: Years ago, at a bar gig in Sioux Falls, a guy came up to me and asked what made me decide to play the drums. I answered, "I want to bring rhythm to the world." He promptly said, "No, what you want is to discover rhythm for yourself." That really turned things around for me, right there. I guess I'm still trying to discover rhythm for myself..."

Casey Scheuerell:...................................................Image(drums, percussion)

" His educational foundation took its most momentous turn when he was excepted at the Berklee School of Music. "I firmly believe my time at Berklee was critical to my career."

From Berklee, Scheuerell went on to perform and record with Gino Vanelli. Immediately, the musical community acknowledged Casey as an innovative stylist and an interpretive master. The percussive acclaim brought Scheurell to the attention of Jon-Luc Ponty. After four year with Ponte, it was evident to all who experienced Casey, he was not only here to stay but would forge new directions in drum set art. It's a long way from that night in 1964. "If I can turn one kid on, like Ringo turned me on, then I think that I will have contributed something significant to the community of percussion... " ( Mislim da sada Casey predaje na Berklee-u... )

Joaquin Lievano:.....................................................Image(electric guitar, acoustic guitar)

" Born in Bogota, Colombia, his family moved to New York when he was one year old. He grew up listening to a mixture of Latin and Rock music and began to play the guitar at age eleven. Throughout his adolescence, he played with various Pop and Rock bands while honing his skills as an instrumentalist, vocalist and composer. Joaquin first gained international recognition as the guitarist that fueled some of the biggest selling Jazz-Fusion chart topping singles with the great violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. With such favorites as "Cosmic Messenger" and "Egocentric Molecules" as well as album classics Cosmic Messenger, A Taste for Passion and Civilized Evil, Joaquin's soaring guitar solos crystallized the guitar sound of the Jazz-Fusion movement.
With his now legendary San Francisco based band The Warriors, Joaquin teamed up with Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer and Grammy winning producer Narada Michael Walden, bassist Keith Jones (later replaced by Randy Jackson), and the then unknown keyboardist and now Grammy winning producer, Walter Afanasieff. Mahavishnu Orchestra violinists Jerry Goodman and later Steve Kindler were also part-time members. Stellar performances built a West Coast cult following that filled concert halls as well as inspired other notables such as Tom Coster, Rodney Franklin and Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka to utilize Joaquin's talents.
The demand for his skill as a band leader and session and touring artist grew to including work with R&B, Jazz and Adult Contemporary notables such as Gerald Albright, Steve Smith, Airto Moreira, Sheila E., Harvey Mason, Yanni, Terry Bozzio, Angela Bofill and Stacy Lattisaw to name just a few... "

Peter Maunu:..............................................Image(electric guitar, acoustic guitar, guitar synthesizer)

" He began his career as a classical violinist and concert master, earning a scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music while still in his early teens. After hearing the groundbreaking work of Hendrix and The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows", Peter became fascinated with the sonic possibilities of the guitar and it soon commanded much of his interest. His orchestral approach to playing has always infused his guitar work, and is much in evidence on this library.

Peter's musicality and command of many styles has led to recording and live performances with an eclectic group of artists including Airto, Billy Cobham, Jean-Luc Ponty, Heart, L.A. Express, The Pointer Sisters, Wang Chung, Lou Gramm and Bobby McFerrin. In the late 70's, he and several Bay Area friends -- Mark Isham, Patrick O'Hearn, Terry Bozzio -- formed the pioneering instrumental alliance Group 87, which released two ahead-of-its-time albums. Maunu's longtime involvement with composer Isham has encouraged his experimental side, leading to Peter's many contributions in film music ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Moderns," "Trouble In Mind," and others)... "

Alan Zavod:..............................................Image(electric piano, polyphonic synthesizer, lead synthesizer, grand piano, organ)

" BACK IN 1969, JAZZ GREAT Duke Ellington heard pianist and composer Allan Zavod perform in Melbourne and told him, "I'm going to help you get to America." And America is where
the adventure began for the self-assured teenager who was already wowing audiences with his eccentric performances.

Sitting in his South Yarra terrace, an animated Zavod recalls the highlights of his journey through the birthplace of his beloved jazz: a wild trip that lasted two decades and included auditioning for Frank Zappa. In 1984, while holidaying with his concert violinist father, Eddie, Zavod got a call from a friend in Los Angeles. "Zappa wants you to audition right now!" No planes flew late from Arizona in those days, so Zavod drove the 600km to LA, arriving about 3am.
"He put some impossible music in front of me that nobody could read; it was worse than trying to read a Stravinsky score," laughs the 49-year-old. "It was ridiculous, full of 9/3s and 7/16s. I struggled through; he was messing with me. Then we played together spontaneously and he gave me the job on the spot."

He studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Berklee College of Music in Boston. Upon graduation, he began his professional career in New York - in the early 1970s as a big band pianist, working with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Woody Herman, Mike Gibbs and Gary Burton, Maynard Ferguson, and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra, joining Jean-Luc Ponty in 1976. He remained with Ponty for eight years. "

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Cortex
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Review albuma:

Post by Cortex » 24 Apr 2008, 15:04

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.....U moru fantastichnih albuma koje je Jean-Luc Ponty objavio sa chitavom plejadom fantastichnih muzichara, ipak bih ja, kao svoj omiljeni, izdvojio album COSMIC MESSENGER. Za razliku od svog prethodnika, albuma “Enigmatic Ocean” na kome smo bili u mogucnosti da uzhivamo slushajuci svirku takvih legendarnih muzichara kakvi su Steve Smith ili Alan Holdsworth , na albumu “Cosmic Messenger”, Jean-Luc Ponty okuplja podjednako talentovane momke, ali ipak muzichare za koje ce se u potpunosti chuti tek malo kasnije.
.....“Cosmic Messenger” i zvuchi drugachije od bilo kojeg albuma koji je Ponty do tada objavio. Na njemu se mozhe naci najmanji broj tonova do tada. Najmanji broj promena harmonskih progresija. Najmanje neparnih ritmova. Sve je odmereno, nema preterivanja, nepotrebnih improvizacija(shto ne znachi da improvizacija nema), svaki, pa i najminorniji delic albuma deluje svrsishodno i u funkciji je docharavanja celokupne, kosmichke atmosfere. Na ovom albumu skoro da i nema promena tempa, dinamike, on je hipnotishuci od pochetka do kraja, svaka kompozicija pricha svoju prichu i na kraju imamo zaokruzhenu celinu i album koji je uvek prijatno slushati, ma u kakvom da ste raspolozhenju.


....Album pochinje istoimenom kompozicijom Cosmic Messenger koja u prvih par navrata drzhi slushaoca u napetom ishchekivanju, a potom se zvuk lagano razliva pred njim i obuzima istog jednim prijatnim, latentno groove-olikim ritmom, a koji opet, deluje nekako epski i poletno, kao da mogu videti kako se taj ,nikako nuzhno materijalizovani, kosmichki entitet sprema na svoj put na koji tako ljubazno poziva i nas kao svoje shticenike, mozhda shegrte kojima je spreman da otkrije tajnu svemirske fuzije. Kako kompozicija teche, Ponty dodaje ukus svojih egzotichnih elektrichnih sola zachinjenih ehoom, dok na kraju kompozicije klavijature ponovo spushtaju tenziju ali je i dalje chine napetom, dok se kosmichki glasnik polako sprema da nam otkrije umetnost srece.

.....The Art Of Happiness je funk na Jean-Luc Ponty nachin. Glavna tema je neverovatno jednostavna, svega par tonova, ali onih pravih. Uslovno recheno “refren” ove stvari odvodi harmoniju malo dalje, u razradu koja se chini ne tako ochekivanom ali opet sasvim prikladnom i savrsheno odgovarajucom. Kroz chitavu kompoziciju ritam sekcija se poigrava sa jednim jedinim ritmom, ali to chini na jedan meditativan, gotovo mantrichki nachin koji vas jednostavno tera da cupkate nogom. Gitarske i violinske solazhe se smenjuju, strasno odsvirane uz savrshen osecaj i meru.

.....Don’t Let The World Pass You By je moja omiljena stvar na albumu. Naziv deluje nekako prekoravajuce, upozoravajuce. Ne dopusti da te svet mimoidje, da prodje pored tebe. Zhivi, uchini svaki tren najboljim mogucim. Dok se kompozicija zahuktava, takve misli samo dobijaju svoju prikladnu tonsku potporu. Svemirska harmosnska progresija od svega 2-3 akorda u pozadini postavlja neophodni temelj za igru bubnjeva, basa i gitare koja sledi. Tako je teshko zamisliti ijdenu drugu kombinaciju tonova i ritma koja bi mogla bolje odgovarati nego shto je ona koja sledi. Uz zadavanje tempa na hi-hat-u, bubnjar svojom bas pedalom prati velichanstveno jednostavno a savrsheno elokventno nizanje tonova kojima nas chashcavaju basista i gitarista izvodeci iste tonove, pomerene za oktavu vishe ili nizhe. Onda tek kompozicija zauzima svoj pravi kurs delujuci oslobadjajuce n abasistu i bubnjara koji zadaju tako zarazan ritam koji je uticao na mene da neprestano pushtam ovu stvar po 10 puta zaredom kada sam je prvi put chuo. Do tada nekako u nezasluzhenoj senci od pochetka albuma, klavijaturista Alan Zavod se sada pokazuje u pravom svetlu pruzhajuci fabulozan performans koji kulminira nechim shto aranzhmanski dovodi kompoziciju do svog vrhunca, ali to je samo uvod za jednu od najboljih i najenergichnijih solazha koje je Jean-Luc Ponty ikada odsvirao! U svoju deonicu on ulazi lagano, sigurno, neiskusno uho reklo bi i uplasheno, ali uskoro nam se prikazuje u svoj svojoj tehnichkoj briljantnosti ali i kao neko ko nikada, ma sa koliko strasti i u improvizatorskom bunilu svirao, ne ide over the top, vec uvek strukturno savrsheno, sa odlichnim zavrshetkom. Sada je vec bubnjar uveliko na ride-cymbal chineli odvodi ritam dalje i dalje, tenzija se povecava do neslucenih granica formirajuci mozhda i samu kulminaciju albuma ako posmatramo snagu i strogo kontrolisanu explozivnost benda. Sasvim logichnim zavrshetkom, uz ponavljanje nekoliko genijalnih tema koje smo vec chuli na pochetku, Don’t Let The World Pass You By stizhe i do svog zasluzhenog kraja. Kakva kompozicija!

.....I Only Feel Good With You nekako deluje izvuchena van koncepta albuma, mozhda kao neophodni predah za muzichare, ali ona je i mnogo, neuporedivo mnogo vishe od toga. Melodijski ovo je najlepsha stvar na albumu, tu nemam nikakvih dilema. Verovatno jedna od najlepshih kompozicija koje sam ikada i chuo. Toliko sam se puta i sam osecao kao shto se verovatno i sam Ponty osecao kada je davao ime ovoj kompoziciji, u odsustvu voljene osobe, sa mislima okrenutim samo ka njoj. O svakoj kompoziciji na ovom albumu mogao bih da napishem neshto, da probam da razgranichim delove, da dam zaslugu za ono shto se chuje ovom ili onom muzicharu, ali kada se radi o ovoj stvari, jednostavno sam zanemeo. Nema tih rechi, nema chak ni ideja u mome umu koje bi mogle da obuhvate taj dijapazon osecanja i tu snagu koja izbija iz ove kratke kompozicije koja u meni traje zauvek. Ako je ikada postojala kompozicija koja je napor muzichara da svoja osecanja prenese u eter uspela da iznese na savrsheni nachin, onda je to ova.

.....Nakon sanjive, teshke, I Only Feel Good With You, Ponty i ekipa nastavljaju mnogo veselije uz Puppet’s Dance. Sada vec u isprekidanom ritmu, bend se trudi da nas trgne i poruchi nam da nije sve u kosmosu tako tuzhno ili mistichno, pretece. U svakom sluchaju, prijatna kompozicija koja na prvi pogled ne pripada albumu ali se savrsheno uklapa s njim, ne znam kako. Sta da vam kazhem, moracete da mi verujete oko ovoga.

.....Fake Paradise je najkomplikovanija stvar na albumu, uz dosta promena ritma i gomilu pirotehnike sjajnih gitarskih i klavijaturnih sola, ova stvar je najblizha kompozicijama sa starijih Ponty-evih albuma. Ako se i chini da se Jean-Luc ovde drzhi nekako po strani, na samom kraju ce vas svakako razuveriti. Sve u svemu, odlichna, high-energy stvar koja svojim interesantnim harmonijama uspeva da deluje uzbudljivo svaki put.

.....Ethereal Mood. Pogledao sam u rechniku shta znachi “ethereal” i nashao sledece: zvezdano, nebesko, van ovog sveta, spiritualno, nematerijalno, oznacheno nekom vrstom nesvakidashnje delikatnosti u nekom pogledu. Ova kompozicija je sve to i mnogo vishe. Meditativna od samog pochetka, uz klavijature koje zadaju atmosferu na samom startu, Ethereal Mood se polako, postepeno, aranzhmanski puni i zaokruzhuje ulaskom Ponty-eve violine koja uz malo tonova govori beskrajno mnogo. Chitava atmosfera je tako lebdeca, paperjasto meka, spiritualna u svakom pogledu. U par navrata, harmonija nas vodi korak dalje. Ali samo kako bi saznali da dalje ipak nije za nas, da ga mozhda ne mozhemo shvatiti, ili podneti. Stoga se vracamo na jasno zacrtani kurs i u okviru njega polako bledimo do trenutka potpunog nestanka.

.....Medjutim, na kraju cemo ipak poludeti i ceo svemir ce se sa svim svojim chudima obrushiti na nas i povesti nas na vozhnju nasheg zhivota!!! Egocentric Molecules je takva fusion razbijachina od koje se najezhim apsolutno svaki put. Krece mistichno, kao da se ti mali djavolski egocentrichni molekuli poigravaju, spajaju i razdvajaju, stvarajuci svaki put neku drugu formu zhivota, sasvim novu i osobito lepu, zanimljivu na svoj nachin. I upravo tako i biva, nakon svakog od ovih mistichnih delova pred nama se stvara nova ala koja nas vodi dalje i dalje u beskrajne delove vechno pumpajuceg kosmosa fusion-a. Ova stvar je sve ono shto je jazz/rock, sve shto je fusion, sve shto je Jean-Luc Ponty. Manijakalne solazhe gitarista, kao i samog Ponty-a jedino su prevazidjene ritam sekcijom koja pumpa sve vreme povremeno eskalirajuci, preplavljujuci me energijom koju jedva da mogu i da izdrzhim. Svakako jedan od najboljih i najenergichnijih nastupa ritam sekcije koje sam ikada chuo. Fantastichno bubnjanje a basista je posebno dobar takodje(svirao i na Visions of the emerald beyond od Mahavishnu Orchestra, albumu koji takodje planiram da prikazhem na ovom podforumu) i u ovoj stvari ga prvi put chujemo sa njegovom solo deonicom. Naravno da cete zheleti da ga slushate josh vishe i vishe. Neverovatna stvar, ako trazhite energichni fusion, ne trazhite dalje. Kako bi samo bilo dobro chuti ovu stvar uzhivo...

.....Eto, nadam se da ce neko ovo imati zhivaca da prochita do kraja, to su moje misli o ovom kultnom albumu, albumu kome se stalno vracam. Ako ima onih koji su ovo vec slushali i podjednako ga vole(ili mozhda ne vole), voleo bih da podele svoje misli samnom, a ako ima onih koji nisu, ovaj album(i ovaj moj prikaz) je sjajno mesto za pochetak vasheg istrazhivanja o Jean-Luc Ponty-u i kultnim fusion albumima uopshte. :)


..................................................................Image

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Cortex
The Necromancer
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Joined: 21 Feb 2008, 23:38
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Re: Jean-Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (1978)

Post by Cortex » 06 May 2008, 21:53

Da li je moguce da nikoga nisam zainteresovao za album ili da niko nema komentar na isti ako ga je vec i preslushao? :(

Oh well...

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zwelj
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Re: Jean-Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (1978)

Post by zwelj » 06 Oct 2012, 18:49

[youtube]PS72F3kBp54&feature=relmfu[/youtube]


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