Better Late Than Never

Liaison

andersonpontyEver since the collaboration between Jon Anderson and Jean-Luc Ponty was announced as a Kickstarter project last summer, prog and fusion fans have been anxious to hear how these icons would sound together. The end result far and away exceeds anyone’s expectations.

One of the first things that stands out is Anderson’s embrace of the jazz vocal ethos. The former Yes singer doesn’t float downstream with the current — he rides thermals into the stratosphere. Of course, it would be hard not to be swept up by the jazz vibrations when the other musicians are all from Ponty’s camp, having been in the electric violinist’s band at one time or another. However, it wasn’t always like that.

Guitarist Jamie Glaser is heard on the live CD/DVD but not seen in the DVD, having been overdubbed in on both as a replacement for Jamie Dunlap, the Anderson associate who had to bow out of the project after the one-off Colorado concert from which the DVD and its CD counterpart had been sourced.

“(Dunlap’s) success in the TV and film world made it impossible for him to continue with us,” Ponty told Good New Music by email. “Then Jon really liked Jamie Glaser’s playing and personality after hearing and seeing some videos of him performing in my band before and also solo. So we hired a second Jamie after our first Jamie left!”

But leaving Dunlap in the DVD when the music was now performed by Glaser posed a problem.

“From what I remember Jon suggested to add some footage of Jamie Glaser in the recording studio, since he was not with us in Aspen but joined our project later on, but it didn’t really work with the flow of our concert DVD,” Ponty told GNM. In the end, the Dunlap footage was left on the cutting room floor.

The convoluted changes caused an online ruckus among a number of fans, some of whom were already up in arms because postings to the Kickstarter page were interpreted as indicating there would be a studio CD and a live DVD — a misunderstanding the artists attributed to overzealous promotion by someone other than themselves.

When asked if the intention was always to enhance the live performance with overdubs, Ponty said in his email: “Yes, the plan was to capture the raw energy of our live performance and to enhance it later. As we were listening to our live recording, Jon and I would come up with new ideas, Jon usually taking the lead for his songs and me for mine. I am sure glad we did — I love what we achieved this way.”

But keyboardist Wally Minko, drummer Rayford Griffin and bassist Baron Browne did no overdubs, Ponty said. “All you hear on the album is their live performance except for one of Jon’s songs, ‘I See You Messenger.’ We didn’t like our live performance of that one, so Jon came up with new ideas and I did a totally new arrangement for it, so this is the only song which was recorded from scratch and why you see recording studios credited. As for me I kept all my live solos but I was not yet mastering all the songs in Aspen and even forgot to play in some sections, so I overdubbed a few parts. Jon’s singing in Aspen was excellent overall but he came up with additional ideas afterwards and overdubbed a few more vocal parts.”

Regardless of the long road taken, “Better Late Than Never” was worth the wait: It’s an amazing mix of newly arranged Yes/Jon Anderson songs, as well as Ponty instrumental standards infused with newly written Anderson lyrics. Here’s hoping the album and tour do well enough to inspire the duo to co-write and record an entire studio follow-up.gnm_end_bug

Tracks
1. Intro
2. One in the Rhythm of Hope
3. A for Aria
4. Owner of a Lonely Heart
5. Listening with Me
6. Time and a Word
7. Infinite Mirage
8. Soul Eternal
9. Wonderous Stories
10. And You and I (CD only)
11. Renaissance of the Sun
12. Roundabout
13. I See You Messenger (CD only)
14. New New World (CD only)

Total CD time: 61:24

External links
Jon Anderson’s website
Jean-Luc Ponty’s website
amazon.com
iTunes Store