French violinist and composer Jean-Luc Ponty has collaborated with a number of virtuosic and complex American music makers. He’s played with Frank Zappa, Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Chick Corea.
That gives you a pretty good sense of where Ponty’s music sits, in the realm of progressive jazz-rock fusion, where extended solos are meant to allow for deep-dive explorations of technique and finesse.
Ponty’s classic album, “Cosmic Messenger,” which turns 40 this year, captures the spirit of vastness and coded communication that pervaded the music. Hooks and catchy repeated patterns were downplayed in favor of knotted grooves and math-puzzle riffs, with laser-light-beams of sound shining off into space.
If you like your music to retain a cerebral logic to it, Jean-Luc Ponty’s catalog will have plenty to hold your attention. With classical training and an ability to jump in with jazz violin masters like Stephane Grappelli, or to venture off with like-minded innovators, Ponty, 75, has been able to move in multiple directions over his career.
Jean-Luc Ponty plays at Fairfield Theater Company’s Warehouse, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield, on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m. $68. 203-259-1036 and fairfieldtheatre.org.
