Jean-Luc Ponty
Orpheum Theater
Boston, Mass. U.S.A.
October 18, 1980
performance quality: A (A very nice concert)
recording quality: B+ (good sound at show,
a few bumps but nothing too major,
an appreciative crowd but not very loud audience noise)
source: master audience tape
lineage: AKG D190E microphones >
Sony TC-158SD cassette deck (dolby off) >
Maxell XLII cassettes (not played very often at all) >
soundforge 4.5 > FLAC > torrent. That means your recording
comes from the same WAV files my discs come from. The true splendor
of a Ponty concert in 3 step torrent form with the Glasnost Radio
Productions certification that this is a gapless/glitchless/ pegless
and clipless recording. We love Jean-Luc Ponty music from this time
at GRP and would upload nothing less than that of his fine music.
runtime (disc 1): 65:46
(disc 2): 62:27
setlist: disc 1
1: cosmic messenger
2: demegomania
3: in case we survive
4: forms of life
5: peace crusaders
6: stay with me (cuts in)
7: sunset drive
8: dreaming eyes
9: beach girl
disc 2
10: band introductions
11: once a blue planet
12: mirage
13: a taste of passion
14: life cycles > reminiscence
15: give us a chance
16: happy robots
17: shape of your mind
18: good guys, bad guys
19: egocentric molecules (spliced)
20: new country
comments: this is part of glasnostrd19's Jazz Masters series-
bringing you some of the greatest jazz masters from master
audience recordings.
I've seen Jean-Luc Ponty in the Boston and surrounding area
a few times. The 1st was in 1976, one of the shows that finally
forced me (later) to find a recorder and use it at some shows.
I didn't tape that, but later got a recording. Next time was in 77
and I saw both his tours that year, with a recorder in hand. The
results were to my liking, and the next time I recorded a Ponty
show was this show from the Civilized Evil tour. The generous set
includes some "a Taste of Passion" songs along with several older
ones. I think this is my best sounding of Ponty recordings I've made,
along with the Enigmatic Ocean Boston 77 show. The cutin on Stay with me
is not very noticable at all, the only other cut is in Egocentric Molecules
(you may have trouble finding that one too). There is a problem in
track 4 when someone says you know that's illegal? (you can hear him
say it twice on the recording very clearly), but he was wrong this time,
since there was no taping restriction at this show. Many Orpheum shows
have signs outside the entrance saying no taping allowed (or something
comparable), and I've seen them a few times at shows I've seen, but not
many, and not this one. When you play great music for as long as Ponty
has done it, it becomes a form of respect to record live shows and almost
to be expected. I've seen Ponty 5 times and never been asked or hassled
at the entrance about my tape recorder, which was considerably harder to
conceal than many briefcases. This man is all about music and welcomes
appreciation of it. All the shows I've seen of his have been solid
performances by him and his band. A few people got this show from me on
cassette years ago with all the bumps and clunks. I decided before I upped
it from the master for the first time, I remastered it on Soundforge to
reduce and in many cases remove knocks and bumps on the mikes. This version
is a big improvement, and no noise reduction was used either in the
master or remastering of this torrent. I haven't listened to this much
because the knocks were too loud and I didn't know until recently how to
improve it without ruining the recording. Now I do, so I did, and it
sounds very nice now. There's not much to complain about with a Ponty
show for me, but it seems he always encores with New Country, as if most
people in Boston came to hear Jean-Luc's best impression of country-
western music. Actually the warmest response from this audience seemed
to come for "Beach Girl". It was all right, but I though one of the lesser
musical pieces he'd done at this time. He's a fine enough player to make a
lame song sound rather enjoyable. Most of the music in here is "pre-cheese"
Ponty, Civilized Evil is one of the last real good Ponty albums I've heard,
and nicely played in the several songs they do from it in this show
(that's just a matter of taste) although the 1991 Africa Project he had
was quite good too. I hope to seed something from that eventually.