THE GIFT OF TIME

After a very succesful period in mid to late '70s and aswell in early '80s, this famous musician recorded in 1987 The gift of time. Well, even the album is quite ok, in perfect JLP tradition, is little pale in comparation with Mystical adventure for instance. The sound is in places very flat, but some compositions from here save the album to be just an ordinary album from that period , when most of the listners were towards hard/heavy. Pieces like New Resolutions, Between Sea and Sky or the title track are perfect examples of JLP jazz fusion smothness from that period. The violin is simple but well performed, the pieces are no longer very elaborated, but not simple for sure either.. The album has that '80 production, but is not a bad thing, is ok nothing more. The melodic lines are ok, the musicianship aswell ok, only that overall the album doesn't get to the greatness of Mystical or Enigmatic ocean. To me was a pleasent release, who desearves 3 stars easy, good but nothing really awesome.

From my personal music experience I found the music of Jean Luc Ponty through a cassette (Yess) that my brother owned titled "Cosmic Messenger" sometime in 1979 during my entry point at university. My first reaction was that the music really excellent especially on the harmony of organ, violin and basslines. Since then I always chased other albums by JLP like "Imaginary Voyage", "Enigmatic Ocean", "Mystical Adventures", "Individual Choice" and only lately I purchased the cassettes of "Open Mind", "Civilized Evil" and "The Gift of Time". It does not represent that I am a huge fan of JLP because he actually has produced many albums since his debut in 1964 through "Jazz Long Playing". Well, at first I did not actually consider him as a jazz player but the fact is like that.

Couple of days ago I only got the cassette tape of "The Gifft of Time" Yess version and it's my first time listening this album. The music is really different with what I have known so far about JLP through "Cosmic Messenger", "The Mystical Adventures" or "Enigmatic Ocean" but I do still enjoy the music. There is no track like "Rhythm of Hopes" right here but for sure I sill enjoy the violin work as well as some tight bass lines by Baron Browne whom I have never heard the name before but he plays very good here. My favorite is "Between Sean and Sky" which represents Ponty's jazz skills blended with some flavor of progressive music as well. As you might have predicted that Metamorphosis as the title implies has the kind of ambient music that sounds like explaining the metamorphosis process.

Other tracks that come into my attention are "Introspective Perception" and the title track "The Gift of Time". Both represent how Jean Luc Ponty expresses his skills in violin into the music rhythm section that flows nicely from start to end. There are no segments that represent drastic change in style and tempo like typical progressive music. However, this album is still recommended to those who love jazz-based music like this one.

Overall I can conclude that this album represents a well balanced music composition blending the jazz components with some progressive elements - even though nat that intensive. If you like violin music like Didier Lockwood etc, I think this album deserves your attention. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW