Anyone know who the bassist , in the 70s , was for Jean Luc Ponty ? The heavy set black guy playing a fretless 4strng . He was absolutely amazing .
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Who is that guy ?
- Thread starter TKnights
- Start date
Yes , I think that's him . I saw JLP on either "In Concert" or Midnight Special" back in the late 70s or early 80s . I can't remember when . But I do remember being mesmerized by how smooth and effortlessly he played .
Check out his work with Mahavishnu too, it predates the Ponty stuff and is killing!
- Oct 7, 2000
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The Stephane Grappelli of his generation.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,941
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
There’s a whole new wonderous world of music just a Google search away; then there’s that guitarist with the burned up hand...Who’s Stephane Grapelli?
Wait, you did that on purpose... right?
Well, gee, I could have replied with the standard TB crabapple retort, “use the search function”, “look it up”, or such. But I was just trying to inject a little lightheartedness into being, yes, a wiseass. What do you think I come here for?
Yes, gentle reader, there was a Django before the Jamie Fox movie! ( and I don't mean the lizard cartoon)!
Armstrong with Ponty...fiery-ass tune with a furious bass solo about 1:30 in. Caramba.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
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- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
I don't think it is. Nowhere in any Steve Smith bios does it mention he played with Zappa. Plus Smith is from Massachusetts and went to Berklee. He was nowhere near Zappa.
Yep, that pic is of the Ponty band, circa 1977.
I saw that tour. The guitarist is, IIRC, Daryl Stuermer, who soon would go on to fill Steve Hackett’s place in Genesis and various Phil Collins projects. The Ponty/Zappa connection is that in the mid-60’s Ponty was a straight-ahead Jazzer, coming up in the tradition of, yes, Stephane Grappelli. Zappa was taken more seriously in Europe at the time, and Ponty’s head was turned by FZ’s music, covering “King Kong” on an early solo album. That got back to Frank, and by the early 70’s Ponty was enlisted into the Frank band.
