Jean-Luc Ponty King Kong: Jean Luc Ponty Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa CD

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 Not for everyone
Despite it's really awful, cheesy cover with dear Jean-Luc standing in the giant gorilla's hand while being buzzed by biplanes, this is a great album, but certainly not for everyone! First, for fans of Jean-Luc Ponty himself, this is a window on the period that brought him to the attention of a wider audience through his work with Frank Zappa. For fans of the music of Frank Zappa, this album goes a step further than the avante-garde grab bag of 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' and goes towards the ‘fusion’ sound which Frank played around with on his contemporaneous 'Hot Rats' set. 'King Kong' features quite a few of Frank's 'usual suspects' from this time - Ian Underwood on saxes, George Duke on keyboards and the tighter than tight John Guerin on drums. Ponty's violin playing is almost a quantum leap away from his mid-sixties Parisian style which was closer to Coltrane than Captain Beefheart. Although Frank himself only plays on one track ('How Would You Like To Have A Head Like That?') it is one of his less self-indulgent solos and almost worth the price of the CD itself. The rest of the tracks are up to that standard and mix Zappa's influences and the virtuosity of his instrumentalists perfectly. There are not too many musical ‘sets’ as interesting and inventive as this one. 5/5
Submitted by a reviewer (Sydney, Australia) 
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