Legendary French violinist Jean Luc Ponty and his band will be continuing
their “Atlantic Years” tour in the US beginning August 2018! Jean Luc Ponty is
a pioneer and undisputed master of the violin in the arena of jazz and rock. He
is widely regarded as an innovator who has applied his unique visionary spin
that has expanded the vocabulary of modern music.
Says Jean
Luc, “We're calling it 'The Atlantic Years' tour since I am touring with my
band from the late 70's - 80's with whom I recorded several albums for Atlantic
Records, and we perform some classics from these early albums exclusively.”
The Jean Luc
Ponty Band features:
Jean Luc
Ponty – violin
Jamie Glaser
– guitars
Keith Jones
– bass
Rayford
Griffin – drums
Wally Minko
– keyboards
Jean Luc
Ponty Band 2018 US tour dates:
8/13 -
Chicago / The City Winery
8/14 -
Chicago / The City Winery
8/15 -
Detroit / Chene Park
8/17 -
Pittsburgh / Allegheny County South Park Bandshell
8/18 -
Philadelphia / Keswick Theatre, Glenside PA
8/19 -
Alexandria VA / The Birchmere Music Hall
8/21 -
Annapolis MD / Rams Head
8/22 -
Annapolis MD / Rams Head
8/23 -
Newton NJ / Newton Theatre - Skylands PAC
8/24 -
Beverly MA / Cabot Theatre
8/26 -
Westbury, Long Island NY / The Space
8/28 -
Albany, NY / The Egg
8/29 -
Fairfield CT / The Warehouse
8/30 - New
York City / Sony Hall Theatre
After
studying classical violin at the Paris Conservatory, Jean Luc Ponty turned to
jazz in the 60's. Thanks to his revolutionary style he collaborated with some
of the best European and American musicians such as Eddy Louiss, Daniel Humair,
Niels Henning-Ørsted Pedersen, John Lewis, Lalo Schifrin, and Quincy Jones. He
became the first bebop violinist and US jazz magazine “Down Beat” created a
violin category for him in its critics' poll, until then violin was in the
'miscellaneous instruments' category. His pioneering work on the electric
violin in the 70's attracted the attention of pop and rock musicians, he
recorded with Elton John and participated to several tours and legendary
recordings with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and John McLaughlin's
Mahavishnu Orchestra. In 1975 he founded his own band and became one of the
most prominent figures of the jazz-fusion movement in the USA, selling millions
of albums that all reached the top of the US charts. Ponty's most recent album
“The Atacama Experience” is considered as one if his best and to this day Ponty
keeps touring with his band around the world.
Ponty also
collaborates on occasional projects such as “The Rite of Strings” with Stanley
Clarke and Al Di Meola. In 2011 Ponty joined the mythical American group RETURN
TO FOREVER IV with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Frank Gambale
for a world tour spanning on 5 continents.
Ponty
received the 2007 Jazz Trophy in Germany, the medal of Chevalier de la Legion
d'Honneur in France in 2009, the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Awards in Ireland,
and the Grand Prix of the Sochi Arts Festival in 2012 in Russia from the hands
of world famous classical violist and orchestra conductor Yuri Bashmet. In 2012
Ponty performed his music with Orchestre Pasdeloup for his 50-year career
celebration at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, then again with symphony
orchestras in Brazil, Russia and Hungary in 2012 and 2013.
In April
2013 Herbie Hancock invited him to perform in Istanbul at “International Jazz
Day” for UNESCO. Ponty also founded a new quartet with his daughter,
pianist-singer-composer Clara Ponty which performed in France and Germany in
2014. Ponty also performed with the 89 musicians of the Novosibirsk
Philharmonic Orcherstra for the Siberian Christmas Festival.
In 2014
Ponty recorded an album as an acoustic trio with Stanley Clarke on double bass
and Gypsy-French guitarist Bireli Lagrene, which was released on
Impulse/Universal in the Fall 2015.
Jean Luc
recently formed the Anderson Ponty Band with Jon Anderson, co-founder and lead
singer of British progressive rock band YES, a CD and DVD was released in 2015
followed by a North American concert tour.
The Band:
Jamie Glaser
(guitar) is best known as the guitarist for grammy award winning musical acts,
Jean Luc Ponty, Chick Corea, Bryan Adams, Gloria Trevi, Manhattan Transfer and
more. His guitar can be heard on over 170 albums as well as on the biggest
sitcoms of all time, Seinfeld and Married With Children. Jamie compositions can
be heard weekly on CBS sports, ABC, Animal Planet, History channel, Discovery,
and ESPN. His solo albums have been successful worldwide.
Keith Jones
(bassist) has worked with many well known music artists such as Joe Sample, The
Crusaders, Al Jarreau, Jean Luc Ponty, Carlos Santana, Andy Narell, Wayne
Shorter, Kenny Loggins, Mark Isham and many more. His distinctive bass lines
can be heard on hundreds of recordings.
Rayford
Griffin (drums) has been internationally respected as among the most inventive,
volcanic and versatile drummers in music, having amassed stellar credits with
virtuosos ranging from Jean Luc Ponty and The Stanley Clarke Band, George Duke,
to Dave Koz, Anita Baker and Michael Jackson.
Wally Minko
(keyboards) is a well respected and highly accomplished member of the LA music
scene and has toured and recorded with some of the most well known and
successful artists in the world! Some of the artists Wally has worked with
include Toni Braxton, Pink, En Vogue, New Edition, Barry Manilow, Tom Jones,
Arturo Sandoval, Gregg Rolie (Santana/Journey), Eddie Money and the Anderson
Ponty Band, featuring legendary Yes vocalist, Jon Anderson and world renowned
jazz violinist, Jean Luc Ponty.
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