LIVE: JEAN-LUC PONTY – August 15, 2018

Venue: Chene Park

City: Detroit, MI

Date: August 15, 2018

Review and Photographs by: Todd “Toddstar” Jolicoeur (www.toddstarphotography.com)

Detroit loves jazz – and one of the coolest venues in the city to witness Jazz is Chene Park.  The waterfront venue treats show attenders to an amazing view of the Detroit River as the shows backdrop.  On a very humid Wednesday in August I attended my very first show at Chene to see Jazz violin legend Jean-Luc Ponty at a venue he is very familiar with… and the capacity crowd was just as familiar with him, his skills, and his catalog.  After checking out the end of the openers set, I readied myself to experience Ponty’s magic, having been a fan since 1983’s Individual Choice (thanks to a friends dad).  The band stepped into the light and soon the crowd was cheering and making noise waiting for Jean-Luc to take his rightful place center stage.  As he launched into his first song of the evening, I let my finger dance across my camera’s shutter button… seemingly in rhythm with the music being played.  I continued to move around the venue from center to stage left to stage right snapping photo after photo of the man as he pleased the crowd with end bend of a string and run of a bow.  Finally, he removed his hat and we were all able to detect the serious overtone of his performance reflected in his face and playing.  After my allotted songs, I put my cameras away and made my way to the back of the venue to absorb some of the finest jazz from one of its best players.  I can only hope that this nights performance was as good as the one they recorded and released at the same venue on 1996’s Live At Chene Park.

Complete set of JEAN-LUC PONTY show photos HERE

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Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries