Koch Records
2007
The Acatama Experience
About This Album
Jean-Luc Ponty has dabbled in commercialized music off the beaten path of jazz for quite a number of years, a dilution of the straight-ahead and fusion-oriented music that made him an instantly recognized post-Stéphane Grappelli performer. The Acatama Experience is apparently a good one for Ponty, as his "new" style harks back to his emergence in the mid-'70s. It's a back-to-basics approach, paring down the histrionics and processed electric violin to a merely amplified, natural approach. Ponty has also surrounded himself with two excellent players in keyboardist William Lecomte and drummer Thierry Arpino, and on three tracks an old friend, the Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine. The band gets things rolling with a contemporary, funky, yet very respectful version of Bud Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare," with other variations away from the core sound including an eighth note-centered "Celtic Steps" replete with danceable fiddlistics, the portable road song "Still in Love," and the title cut -- an unusual, understated, spacy, ambient, overdubbed solo for Ponty on various instruments. The retro tracks are contemporary in nature, but reminiscent of his days with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12 and 13)

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