The Very Best of Jean-Luc Ponty
The French-born violinist Jean-Luc Ponty bridged the old jazz  styles ofStephane  GrappelliandJoe Venutiand contemporary stylists such as the  lateNoel  PointerandRegina Carter. He was schooled in the classics,  played withFrank  Zappain the 1960s and with theMahavishnu OrchestraandGeorge Dukein the  '70s. Although his violin and his electrified violectra were staples in  the fusion era, his musicality was solidly based in the classics and  jazz, as evidenced here by his hornlike phrasing on "Bowing-Bowing"  with keyboardist Patrice Rushen and his Cajun intro on "Aurora,  Part II." He takes a page fromPhilip Glass's minimalist  riffs on "Mirage," the spacy "Cosmic Messenger," and "No Stings  Attached," a fiery live date. There's even a New Age presence with  guitarist Joaquin Lievano on "A Taste for Passion." At the end of the  day, though,The Very Best ofshows abundantly that Ponty could  rock out with the best of them. Check out "Infinite Pursuit," a sonic  twin to thePolice's "Synchronicity," and you'll hear a  musician who makes electronics swing in any idiom.--Eugene Holley Jr.