Civilized Evil CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Jean-Luc Ponty (violin, keyboards); Joaquin Lievano, Daryl Sturmer (guitar); Chris Rhyne (keyboards); Randy Jackson (bass); Mark Craney (drums).
Recorded at the Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California in June & July, 1980.
Personnel: Jean-Luc Ponty (vocals, violin, keyboards, bass synthesizer); Daryl Stuermer, Joaquin Lievano (guitar); Chris Rhyne, Allan Zavod, Chris Rhyme (keyboards); Mark Craney (drums).
Recording information: Village Recorder, Los Angeles, CA (06/1980-07/1980).
Photographer: Mark Hanauer.
All of the titles here make some kind of reference to cosmic issues of good and evil on the planet Earth, but the suggestive wordplay doesn't make this music much different from that on Jean-Luc Ponty's previous Atlantic outings. Ponty plays with his accustomed fluid virtuosity; the five-piece group ranges from standard Ponty fusion to mild funk; the rhythm section is sometimes more grandly recorded than before; and occasionally, one can hear some embryonic sequenced structures that would be explored further on in the decade. ~ Richard S. Ginell
All of the titles here make some kind of reference to cosmic issues of good and evil on the planet Earth, but the suggestive wordplay doesn't make this music much different from that on Jean-Luc Ponty's previous Atlantic outings. Ponty plays with his accustomed fluid virtuosity; the five-piece group ranges from standard Ponty fusion to mild funk; the rhythm section is sometimes more grandly recorded than before; and occasionally, one can hear some embryonic sequenced structures that would be explored further on in the decade. But one still gets the overall impression that Ponty has been around this block a few too many times; what was once fresh and musical has ossified into formula. ~ Richard S. Ginell
Ponty kicked off the '80s with an anomalous jolt of electronicized jazz funk. Fusion had begun to recede into small, underground pockets, hiding its head in fear, overwhelmed by bad muzak and the rejuvenation of tepid traditionalism. Experimentalism was left to other genres, but Ponty plowed on, updating his sound to reflect the changing technological flavors of the time. On CIVILIZED EVIL, he let his obvious love for electronics and science fiction advance to the fore.
"Demagomania" is a bass-driven showcase for Chris Rhyne's wedges of prog synth and Ponty's intergalactic violin bursts. "Forms of Life" is Ponty lost in a forest of silicon gadgetry, a nearly five-minute fugue of majestic keyboard clusters, stuttering violins, and punchy synth bass. And "Happy Robots" sees Ponty and his band jammin' down at the Star Wars cantina, doing a disco-funk wigwam with Ponty soloing over the top. Never has such wicked evil sounded so intoxicatingly good.