Events

[JAZZ] At 74, Jean-Luc Ponty is jazz-rock royalty—a violin virtuoso who came to the United States from France at the urging of Frank Zappa, who’d composed the music for the 1970 album King Kong, which later got picked up by Blue Note. Already considered a bad boy by jazz purists reluctant to admit the violin into their stable of preferred instruments, Ponty went on to work with Elton John and the Mahavishnu Orchestra before landing a contract with Atlantic that found him selling millions of records in the wake of successful fusion acts like Weather Report. Since the late 1970s, he’s favored an electric five-string violin (with a low C, and occasionally a six-string with low C and F), and has incorporated pedals and effects into his performances, resulting in an idiosyncratic signature sound. More recently, he joined forces with keyboardist Chick Corea in the group Return to Forever, teamed up with badass bassist Stanley Clark and guitarist Bireli Lagrene for an acoustic trio project; last year, he released an album and toured with Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. For this show on Friday, June 23, at the Bear’s Den in the Seneca Niagara Casino, he’ll concentrate on his Atlantic material.