Jean-Luc Ponty: violin
Allan Zavod: keyboards
Daryl Stuermer: guitar
Ralphe Armstrong: bass
Steve Smith: drums

McAlister Auditorium
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
October 23, 1977
promoting the album "enigmatic ocean"
source: audience tape (made with unknown recorder, tape and mikes)
runtime: 109:22 (minutes/ seconds)

setlist:
disc 1 45:28
1: tarantula 11:26
2: the gardens of babylon 9:14
3: overture of the trans love express 7:32
4: the struggle of the turtle to the sea 17:15 (cuts near end, spliced, tape flip)

disc 2 63:53
5: band introductions 2:02
6: nostalgic lady 7:05
7: violin solo (wandering on the milky way) 17:39
8: mirage 8:22
9: enigmatic ocean and encore applause 19:27 (cuts at 17:33, tape flip)
10: new country 3:22
11: polyfolk dance 5:54

lineage (what's known of it):
master recording, believed to be made by "freezer"
cassette trade > another cassette trade >
(that's how it was in pre digital days)
my 2nd (maybe 3rd?) gen. maxell XLII-S 90 min. cassettes >
played on nak. BX-125 into soundforge (wav)
flac > torrent. 1st seeded in October 2008
reseeded in 2015 with some spelling correction, venue/ location information
track times and a flac > wav > flac (sb's aligned) reconversion to remove the sbe's.
a level dropoff after change of tape ending track 9 was adjusted and is no longer there.
Do not sell this recording.
share freely, losslessly and gaplessly.
comments:
I did not see this concert, and neither did the source of this recording for me,
but it is a good, clean recording and seems to be complete (as in uncut),
this was a very good time for Ponty. This is a very fine show.
New orleans is supposed to be a really good place to hear music of many kinds,
and any place is a good place to hear a Ponty show from this era.
If you haven't heard this one yet, you should.
The violin solo is extra long in this show and you get a hefty sampling of music
from Enigmatic Ocean (the 4th release of Ponty with his own bands).
My favorite Ponty band is the one before this but this is also a very (arm)strong band.
Ralphe is very good here (as usual for him) and does a nice jam in struggle of the turtle.
This was just a few months before Daryl Stuermer joined up with Genesis, and his work in Ponty
tours may have had something to do with why Genesis would ask him to try filling Steve Hackett's
shoes (a very tall order for anyone). How many know Daryl is the 1st American (he's from Milwaukee)
to play in Genesis, who is as British as, well, Queen Elizabeth II, and almost equally royally British.
Daryl is a very good guitarist too, and this was when that had become clear.
He was already very good before ever joining Genesis, and that didn't hurt either (too much).
If you like Daryl for his guitar in Genesis, you might like this even more because the guitar has to
be strong in a Ponty show, just like the whole band. It's not all about Ponty at a Ponty concert,
but if you like his playing, you'll like this playing.
The 75-78 Ponty stuff is very good live. I split my disc copy of this starting disc 2 with track 7
(there are a couple of quiet seconds opening it) which is about halfway through the show,
but there are a couple of other places equally suitable if preferred, such as track 5 (as posted).