Mads Tolling Quartet: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty – Live at Yoshi's

Internationally celebrated violinst Mads Tolling has steadily been building a legacy for himself as part of the Grammy Award-wining Turtle Island String Quartet. A few years ago, he formed his own ensemble (another four-piece), and they've since released three studio albums. Of course, musicians always owe a debt to their inspirations, so Tolling's newest release, Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty – Live at Yoshi's, comes as no surprise. A uniquely arranged and impeccably performed collection of covers, the album is a delight for fans of the instruments, performers, and genre in general.

Interestingly, he met Ponty while studying at Berklee College of Music. Ponty recommended that he join up with renowned jazz bassist, Stanley Clark (Return to Forever), and eventually, Tolling and Clark would perform together many times. Naturally, Tolling views this tribute as a sign of gratitude. Of the project, he says, "I think it was my goal…to have a wide range of material…I didn't want to recreate his compositions, but give a new take on them…" Recorded in Oakland, California, it's an encompassing representation of Ponty's varied work, which ranged from jazz fusion to swing and bebop.

While every track on Celebrating… is superb, an easy standout is the quartet's take on one of Frank Zappa's most adored compositions, "King Kong" (from Uncle Meat). It begins much like the original, except that the bass line is being plucked on guitar. There's a fair amount of improvisational soloing, too, as the band managers to implement every trademark moment while also incorporating plenty of new ideas. Elsewhere, "Enigmatic Ocean" contains some extremely complex syncopation and start/stop techniques, while "Last Memories of Her," as the title may suggest, is a lot more somber and delicate. Also, Ponty's "New Country" is juxtaposed exceptionally with Curtis Lewis' "Old Country." As Tolling explains, the former track "…sounds like Ponty's optimistic outlook on life after moving to the USA…," while the latter "…implies a melancholy story of an old man sitting [and] contemplating a life of missed opportunities." Indeed, Celebrating…is packed with varying emotions and levels of complexity and intensity.

Another impressive aspect is the way the album is organized conceptually; several tracks are bookended by the intro and outro portions of "Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea," and the collection closes with the two-part bang of "Intro to Pontyfication" and "Pontyfication" (an obvious play on the word "pontification," which some may feel Celebrating suffers from). Little things like this definitely help make albums more special.

All in all, it's clear that Tolling and his band put a lot of love and meticulous effort into the night's show, and every note and reaction is captured perfectly on the official release. It's usually enjoyable enough when artists simply recreate their idols' work, but to take it to the next level with reinterpretation is an even more commendable feat. Jazz enthusiasts will no doubt cherish what the quartet does on here.

Track Listing
1. Lila's Dance
2. Song to John
3. Old Country
4. Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea (Intro)
5. King Kong
6. Enigmatic Ocean
7. Bowing Bowing
8. Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea (Outro)
9. Last Memories of Her
10. New Country
11. Beatrice
12. Intro to Pontyfication
13. Pontyfication

Added: September 15th 2012
Reviewer: Jordan Blum
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Related Link: Artist Website
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Language: english

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