The 19th album from this French violinist.
Jean Luc Ponty had help from a lot of African artists on this album. Too many to mention in fact. In addition to the violin, we get some guitars, bass, synths, drums, various kinds of African percussions and female vocals.
You can read my reviews of his albums somewhere else in this blog.
I was very critial of Jean Luc Ponty's electronica album The Gift Of Time from 1987. I bypassed his 1989 album Storytelling before I ended up with this album again.
So I was curious to know what he would come up with after his voyage into the rhythms and soul of Africa, the forgotten continent.
My first thoughts goes to Osibisa and their first albums. It very much feels like an Osibisa album with violins, this album. But where Osibisa sounded authentic, Tchokola does not really feel that authentic. The reasons is the violins where Jean Luc Ponty drags in some European instruments and semi-classic music into African soul and music. I feels a bit wrong.....
The music on this almost one hour long album is not bad at all. But the culture clashes feels a bit odd..
The result is a decent album which will only appeal to Jean Luc Ponty's hardcore fans. I am not one of them although I am a fan. But not hardcore enough for this album.
2 points
No comments:
Post a Comment