Biography

Legendary drummer Kenny Clarke compared Jean-Luc Ponty to Dizzy Gillespie. Fellow violinist Stuff Smith marveled, “He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone.” Born in 1942, the French violinist transported jazz violin playing into the world of modern jazz. On Frank Zappa’s urging, Ponty moved to the States in 1970. Over the next years he toured with Zappa, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Chick Corea’s “Return to Forever”.

On MPS you’ll find his solo albums Sunday Walk (1967) and Open Strings (1972) as well as his collaboration album New Violin Summit (with Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Michał Urbaniak & Nipso Brantner). He also played on Wolfgang Dauner’s Free Action.