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Mads Tolling Quartet: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty

By Glenn Astarita
September 9, 2012
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Track review of "Enigmatic Ocean"

Mads Tolling Quartet: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty

Mads Tolling spent nine prominent years with the Turtle Island Quartet; here, with his quartet, the Grammy Award-winning violinist hails

Jean-Luc Ponty

violin
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Jean-Luc Ponty at Yoshi's jazz venue in Oakland, CA. Tolling contributes two original compositions to complement six Ponty-penned works, amid other pieces culled from the legendary French violinist's expansive discography.

It's a bit sleeker, when directly contrasting Ponty's epic jazz-fusion Enigmatic Ocean (Atlantic, 1977). But Tolling turns up the heat via his intensely soaring unison choruses with guitarist Mike Abraham, and exercises a gleaming and impactful cover, though not as loud or ominous as the original rendition featuring

Allan Holdsworth

guitar, electric
1948 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Allan Holdsworth and Daryl Stuermer's blazing dual-guitar leads and solos.

The frontline imparts the sonorous melody amid soaring unison lines and a sense of openness, affording ample soloing opportunities and perky call-and-response mechanisms with the rhythm section. With yearning notes and a few rifling flurries, Tolling and Abraham extract the core attributes of the composition, but redesign the bridge section with a custom-built perspective. The varied track mix, containing numerous ebbs, flows, and variances in delivery, equates to an impassioned program gushing with an abundance of entertaining qualities.

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Personnel

Mads Tolling

violin

Mads Tolling: violin; Mike Abraham: guitar; George Ban-Weiss: bass; Eric Garland: drums.

Album information

Title: Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Madsman Records

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