King Kong

This is the only Jean Luc Ponty album I've ever heard (except for everything he did with Zappa). I only bought it because I already had all Zappa's albums, and hey! look! Zappa plays on this one too. BUT it's not PERFECT. It seems like the album is made sort of in a rush, that's why I give it only 4 stars. I prefer Zappa's versions of these songs (although "America drinks..." is nicely arranged). To sum up: If you're into Zappa in any way: Get this one too! But this is far from the perfect introduction to Zappa's music - one of the reasons, of course, being that this album was recorded in 1970.

This was released in the spring of 1970. It is a must-have for any fan of the music of Frank Zappa who particularly enjoys his composing style from this era, which I find was his most fertile. It should also please fans of late 60s West Coast electric jazz and of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's dry stylings of this period, with little or no vibrato. If you are anything close to a Zappa completist, you need to get "King Kong", not only because the mustachioed wrote all of the arrangements and played a guitar solo on Ponty's own piece, but also because you actually get lots of Zappa writing that you cannot get on anything else from his own catalogue. "Music for Electric Violin and Low-Budget Orchestra" is a much longer version than Zappa's equivalent for guitar, as heard on "Studio Tan", and very differently orchestrated too. Although this one does not exactly flow smoothly all the time - it is said to include countless edits - it has many "new" sections as compared with the Studio Tan version, that have a feel similar perhaps to the composer's "Lumpy Gravy". "Twenty Small Cigars" and "America Drinks and Goes Home" also include beautiful additional writing material from Zappa (probably) that is not available anywhere else to my knowledge. A nice little break in "America Drinks" is smack in the spirit of "Hot Rats" ("It Must be a Camel"?)! The musicians that perform on the jazz pieces are particularly wonderful here. Not that there is anything wrong about the other chaps that play on the more avant-garde bits. It's just that in this context (of likely limited time for rehearsal), the jazz guys really bloom... George Duke, Ernie Watts, John Guerin... all smoke big time! Mother Ian Underwood conducts the 11-piece band track (probably has the uncredited free-style tenor sax break on this one too) and plays on the head of the title track. Get it soon! However, the J.-L. Ponty fans of his fusion era must be warned: this is VERY different stuff!

This is one of the "bonus" albums that the average FZ fan might never be aware of but the hard core ones will find it a really worthwile addition to their collections. The undoubtable highlight is the Revised Music piece. It is much longer than the Studio Tan/Läther version and includes additional parts/arrangements such as A Pound For A Brown On The Bus (check out Uncle Meat). The album has an acoustic feel (not that much electricity that one might expect from a Ponty recording). I rate it 4 stars since this version of King Kong isn't my most favored, and since the sound isn't really excellent. A little muddy and thin I would say. Still a great album!