Jean-Luc Ponty - Mystical Adventures

Mystical Adventures expands Jean-luc Ponty's palette slightly with the introduction of part-time percussionist Paulinho Da Costa and the use of a vocoder on a couple of tracks. Otherwise, it's the same mixture of mildly intoxicating arpeggios and flights of fancy that you'd find in various amounts on any Ponty album from this period. The five-part suite "Mystical Adventures" is a softer sibling to the earlier "Imaginary Voyage," utilizing vaguely Spanish themes and occasionally ambient pairings of organ and synthesizer to create a work similar to Chick Corea's "Touchstone." While in the course of its 20 minutes some interesting ideas are explored on the first side of music, the real showstoppers are a cover of Stevie Wonder's "As" and the closing "Jig." These two songs are as engaging and fun as anything from Ponty's Atlantic output -- not coincidentally, they're two of the three songs that feature Da Costa, whose percussion complements Ponty's violin to create dual engines of propulsion. Read More