A Taste For Passion

Album Review

Despite the title, this release is more subdued than its predecessors on the shelves, more tightly controlled, more conventional in instrumentation. Jean-Luc Ponty temporarily pulls back on electronic display for its own sake, even permitting some acoustic instruments to take the fore, and the recorded sound is drier and less lustrous. Nevertheless, Ponty's urbane Euro-sensibility can still be felt strongly in these carefully conceived and "orchestrated" jazz-rock compositions for his six-piece group. "Beach Girl," with its locomotive-driven chorus surrounded by folk-like passages, is the most memorable tune of the lot. If you can overlook the dated timbres of the ARP (a long-defunct company) synthesizers and the flat acoustics that place this music squarely within its decade, this music can still give pleasure to today's CD fans. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi